"Catastrophe theory and economic modelling at the back of an envelope" by Eduardo Pol
Catastrophe theory (CT) emerged out of problems in pure mathematics. The insights and language of differential topology, from which CT sprang, are foreign to most economists. The purpose of this paper is to explain how to use Abstract CT in economic modelling. To this end, we spell out a step-by-step procedure that can be understood without a knowledge of differential topology. The corollary advantage of our systematic procedure is that it brings into sharp focus the limited relevance of CT for economic modelling. The paper is developed in four stages. The first stage provides a gentle introdu...