Working Paper: NBER ID: w24602
Authors: Casey B. Mulligan; Russell Bradford; James H. Davenport; Matthew England; Zak Tonks
Abstract: We consider problems originating in economics that may be solved automatically using mathematical software. We present and make freely available a new benchmark set of such problems. The problems have been shown to fall within the framework of non-linear real arithmetic, and so are in theory soluble via Quantifier Elimination (QE) technology as usually implemented in computer algebra systems. Further, they all can be phrased in prenex normal form with only existential quantifiers and so are also admissible to those Satisfiability Module Theory (SMT) solvers that support the QF_NRA logic. There is a great body of work considering QE and SMT application in science and engineering, but we demonstrate here that there is potential for this technology also in the social sciences.
Keywords: quantifier elimination; satisfiability modulo theory; economic reasoning; automated reasoning
JEL Codes: B41; C63; C65
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| supply shift (J29) | equilibrium quantity (D50) |
| supply shift (J20) | price (D41) |
| quantifier elimination and SMT technology (C61) | validity of economic theorems (B40) |