Jointly offered by

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(JUPAS Code 5232)
Jointly offered by Departments of Mathematics and
Economics
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• Academic Aspirations
• Provide students with solid training in
  fundamental theories in both mathematics
• and economics.
• Equip students with quantitative reasoning
  skills, conceptual understanding and the ability
  to effectively communicate in mathematics and in
  the language of
• economics and social science.

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• Provide a program of study for students who seek
  the option of taking a quantitatively oriented
  job in financial industry or intend to pursue
  postgraduate study in applied mathematics,
  economics, or in a related area, like
  quantitative finance or
• management science.

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• Why choose this degree program?
• The program is advantageous to students who
  otherwise would take a single major in
  mathematics or economics.
• Sequences of mathematics and economics courses
  are provided to equip students with a strong
  quantitative background in economics and related
  areas in management and finance.

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• Career Prospects
• Ample career opportunities in the financial
  sector and public sector for university graduates
  that fully understand the use of mathematical and
  economic tools and those who are able to use the
  knowledge and language of both disciplines.
• Equipped with the necessary background for entry
  into postgraduate degree programs in applied
  mathematics and economics.

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Apportionment of legislature seats based on
populations of districts
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• Method of Greatest Remainder Favoring districts
  with larger population
• Order the remainder qi - ?qi?, and allocate, one
  each, to the districts having the largest
  fractional remainders.
• Integer programming problem.

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Alabama paradox Loss of House Monotone Property
Increase in the total number of seats may force a
state to lose seats

• In 1880, Alabama would get 8 seats from total of
  299, but only 7 from total of 300.
• It changes priority order of assigning surplus
  seats.

• Alabama had an exact quota of 7.646 at 299 seats
  and 7.671 at 300 seats.
• Texas and Illinois increased their quotas from
  9.040 and 18.640 to 9.682 and 18.702,
  respectively.

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Population paradox
State X could lose seats to state Y even though
population of X had grown faster than population
of Y.
New States Paradox
Adding new state, and increasing number of seats,
can cause another state to lose seats.

• In1907, Oklahoma added as new sate with 5 new
  seats to House (386 to 391). Maines
  apportionment went up (3 to 4) while New Yorks
  went down (38 to 37).

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Two-sided matching schemes

• University admission schemes

• Individual student has preference list of
  programs
• Each program has its own priority choices of
  students

• Marriage

Social Choice Theory
Social choice theory studies voting rules for how
individual preferences are aggregated to form
collective preference.
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Impossibility Theorem
A characteristic method proceeds from formulating
some set of apparently reasonable axioms of
social choice as requirements for a social
welfare function (constitution) to capture
different aspects of the aggregation problem.

• Logical incompatibility of different axioms
• No voting system can convert the ranked
  preferences of individuals into a commodity-wide
  ranking while also meeting a certain set of
  reasonable criteria with 3 or more discrete
  options to choose from.

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Measurement of political power
United Nations Security Council
Big five permanent members, each has veto
power. Ten small countries whose membership
rotates. What is the relative strength
(political power) of the big and small
nations?
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United States federal system

• 537 voters in the system 435 Representatives,
  100 Senators, the Vice President and the
  President.
• The President has veto power that can be
  overridden by a two-thirds vote of both the House
  and the Senate.
• The Vice President plays the role of tie breaker
  in the Senate

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Key components in the curriculum Subject area
No. of courses Mathematics
8 Economics 8 Humanities and Social
Science 4 Business 1 Computer
Science 1 Language 2 Free electives 3
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• Major Program Requirements
• Core Courses
• MATH 101 Multivariate Calculus 3-1-04
• MATH 111 Linear Algebra 3-1-04
• MATH 201 Introduction to Analysis 3-1-04
• ECON 198 Microeconomic theory I 3-1-04
• ECON 199 Macroeconomic theory I 3-1-04

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• Required Courses
• MATH 241 Probability 3-1-04
• MATH 301 Real Analysis 3-1-04
• ECON 200 Microeconomic theory II 3-1-04
• ECON 201 Macroeconomic theory II 3-1-04
• ECON 233 Introduction to Econometrics 3-1-04

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• Elective Courses
• Three Mathematics electives are chosen at the
  300-level or above. Some recommended Mathematics
  electives
• are
• MATH310 Game Theory 3-1-04
• MATH341 Stochastic Modeling 3-1-04
• MATH362 Fundamentals of Mathematical
  Finance 3-1-04
• Three Economics electives are chosen at the
  300-level or above 1.

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• General Education Requirements
• Electives must be selected from among those
  general education courses that are listed under
  the section Designated General Education
  Courses.
• Minimum Minimum
• Elective Types Number of Course Credits
• __________________________________________________
  ______________
• GEE (BM) Business and Management 1 3
• General Education Elective
• GEE (ENGG) Engineering General Education
  Elective 1 3
• GEE (HSS) Humanities and Social Science 4
  12 General Education Elective

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ECON 150 3-0-04 Big Problems in Economics
Issues, Ideas, and Principles ____________________
_________________________________________ Non-SBM
students are preferred.  The course introduces
students to some of the economic principles that
never have proven to be powerful tools for
analyzing real-world problems. A wide range of
the most pressing issues of our times will be
identified and discussed. The necessary framework
for analyzing them ill be developed. The course
is especially for the concerned non-business
citizen-student who wants to fulfill general
education requirements, No prior background in
economics is required.
ECON 191 Honors Microeconomics 3-1-04 _________
__________________________________________________
__ Application of economic theory to important
real-world problems reading of selected excerpts
from important books and articles discussions of
methodology and current controversies.
Exclusions ECON 110, ECON 111, ECON 113, SOSC
144, AL Business and Economics Prerequisite B or
above in AL Economics
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COURSE IN LANGUAGE FOR BUSINESS LABU
101 Business Case Analyses 0-3-04 _____________
_________________________________________________
A one-year course for Business students and
students in Technology and Management.  This
course develops students' critical thinking and
communication skills as well as interdisciplinary
awareness through a process of comprehending,
analyzing and presenting business cases in
various disciplines. Exclusion LANG 107 LANG
201 Business Communication 0-3-03 _____________
_________________________________________________
Restricted to students in the School of Business
and Management. Focuses on the processes and
skills of effective oral presentation, report and
letter writing in business situations where
English is the medium of communication.
Prerequisite LABU 101/LANG 107
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• Admission channels and requirements
• Interested applicants may apply via the JUPAS or
  the Early Admission Scheme. In addition to the
• General University entrance requirements, an
  applicant must obtain
• grade D or above in AS use of English in HKALE
• pass in AL Pure Mathematics
• plus 1 AL / 2 AS subjects
• 2008 intake median JUPAS score 23

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For more details, please visit the program web
page at http//www.math.ust.hk/ug/programs/bs
c.mathecon.shtml