Mathematics in economics: Achievements, difficulties, perspectives

Abstract

I am deeply moved by this high honor which has fallen my lot to receive and I am happy to have the opportunity to appear here as a participant in this honorable series of lectures.

In our time mathematics has penetrated into economics so solidly and widely and my theme is connected with such a variety of facts and problems that it brings me to cite the words of Kozma Prutkov, which are very popular in my country: “One cannot embrace the unembraceable.” The appropriateness of this wise sentence is not diminished by the fact that that great thinker is only a pen name.

So, I want to restrict my theme to topics which are nearer to me, mainly to optimization models and their use in the control of the economy in order to best use resources for obtaining best results. I shall touch mainly on the problems and experiences of a planned economy, especially of the Soviet economy. Even within these limits I will succeed to consider only a few problems.