MATHEMATICS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES

Mathematical knowledge, and the ability to use it, is one of the most important means of tackling quantitative problems.

The course offers an introduction to essential mathematical concepts and tools which are useful for political and social sciences, including key concepts of calculus in one and more than one variable and of optimization. The course will focus also on Social Choice Theory and we will consider some formal aspects of social choice and their application to democracy.

The course aims at introducing students to the fundamentals of calculus in one variable. The course begins with the fundamental building blocks of mathematics, then covers essential topics such as derivatives and optimization.
At the end of the course students should have acquired the ability to analyse properties of functions of one variable and the ability to compute derivatives and they should be able to maximize/minimize a quantity described by a one variable function.

The course assumes that students have no mathematical background beyond secondary school algebra.

-Functions, relation and utility
-Voting methods
-Voting paradoxes
-Characterizing voting methods

-Introduction to calculus and the derivative
-Optimization

W.H. Moore, D.A. Siegel A Mathematics Course for Political and Social Research, 2013, Princeton University Press.
During the course other references will be given.

Grading is based on a final written exam consisting in four questions/exercises. Students are also required to write a short essay about Social Choice.

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Lectures and pratice sessions.

Ca’ Foscari applica la Legge Italiana (Legge 17/1999; Legge 170/2010) per i servizi di supporto e di accomodamento disponibili agli studenti con disabilità o con disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento. Se hai una disabilità motoria, visiva, dell’udito o altre disabilità (Legge 17/1999) o un disturbo specifico dell’apprendimento (Legge 170/2010) e richiedi supporto (assistenza in aula, ausili tecnologici per lo svolgimento di esami o esami individualizzati, materiale in formato accessibile, recupero appunti, tutorato specialistico a supporto dello studio, interpreti o altro) contatta l’ufficio Disabilità e DSA disabilita@unive.it.