This is a textbook devoted to mathematical programming algorithms and
the mathematics needed to understand such algorithms. It was mainly
written for economists, but the mathematics itself obviously has
relevance for other disciplines. It is a textbook as well a in parts, a
contribution to new knowledge. There is, accordingly, a broad ordering
of climbing sophistication, the earlier chapters being purely for the
student, the later chapters being more specialist and containing some
element of novelty on certain points. The book is edited in five parts.
Part I deals with elementary matrix operations, matrix inversion,
determinants, etc. Part II is mainly devoted to linear programming. As
far as students' readability is concerned, these two parts are
elementary undergraduate material. However, I would claim, in particular
with respect to linear programming, that I do things more efficiently
than the standard textbook approach has it. This refers mainly to the
search for a feasible solution i.e. Chapter 9, and to upper and lower
limits, i.e. Chapter 10. I have also argued that the standard textbook
treatment of degeneracy misses a relevant problem, namely that of
accuracy. In short, I would invite anyone who has the task of writing or
designing an LP-code, to first acquaint himself with my ideas. viii
INTRODUCTION Parts III and IV are concerned with nonlinear programming.