In the past fifteen years a new field of research has emerged in
economics: the application of control theory methods to macroeconomics
and to microeconomics. The papers and books which have resulted from
this research are important to the development of theoretical and
applied economics. However, they are inaccessible to many with interest
in economics because of the technical nature of the discussion. This
book attempts to make the macro- economic portion of this literature
more accessible by providing a discussion of the key issues using words
and figures rather than mathematical symbols. I would like to thank my
mentors and colleagues in control theory and economics for their help
over the years: Masanao Aoki, Michael Athans, Yaakov Bar-Shalom, Jeremy
Bray, Arthur Bryson, Gregory Chow, Ray Fair, Laurie Henrikson, David
Livesey, Raman Mehra, Alfred Norman, Robert Pindyck, Franklin Shupp,
John Taylor, Lance Taylor, Peter Tinsley, Edison Tse, and Stephen
Turnovsky.