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I'm a tutor for the introductory linear algebra course at my school; this course is required for most upper division economics classes, so a lot of my tutees are economics majors.

This is a typical linear algebra course that focuses on things like linear dependence, subspaces, eigenvalues, etc. and does not spend time on "practical applications". As a result, a lot of the economics students have no idea why they should be taking the course. Since I don't know the first thing about economics, I also have no idea why they should be taking the course.

Is it possible to convince economics students that linear algebra is important for their field? More precisely:

Are there any motivating examples where linear algebra is used in economics?

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    Calculating the price of your shopping is the same thing as evaluating an element of the dual base of a free $\mathbb Z$-module on a vector of the module. I do suspect that this is not what you had in mind, however. ;)2011-07-09
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    Linear programming? Really, linear algebra is so ubiquitous it's hard to come up with examples :D2011-07-09
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    Linear programming is used as a problem solving tool. The sought level of understanding may leave something to be desired. A colleague took a position at a school of economics, and showed me some of their (former) course material. A linear programming problem was described all right, as were several motivating examples. The 'theory' consisted of an explanation of how to use M$Excel to find an optimal solution. May be you can do a toy example, though?2011-07-09
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    Why the -1? Anything I can do to improve this question?2011-07-09
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    Think about Control Theory as the light at the (somewhat) end of the tunnel.2011-07-09

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