Abstract
The development of the calculus of variations is attributed to Euler and Lagrange, although some of it can be traced back to the Bernoullis. A history of the calculus of variations is provided by Goldstine (1980). The calculus of variations deals with the problem of determining a function that optimizes some criterion that is usually expressed as an integral. This problem is analogous to the differential calculus problem of finding a point at which a function is optimized, except that the point in the calculus of variations is a function rather than a number. The function over which the optimum is sought is usually restricted to the class of continuous and at least piecewise differentiable functions.
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Kamien, M.I. (2018). Calculus of Variations. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_132
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_132
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