3.1.6
The Derivative of the Optimal Choice
In comparative statics, we are interested in the function x
(α), which is a solution to the equation
f
x
(x, α) = 0. We apply the implicit function theorem where:
α takes the role of the independent variable x”.
x takes the role of the dependent variable y”.
f
x
(x, α) takes the role of the two-variable function F ”.
(b, a) is a point on the graph f
x
(x, α) = 0.
The derivatives of F are second derivatives of f .
The implicit function theorem requires that
F
x
(b, a) = f
xx
(b, a) = 0.
It concludes there is a differentiable function x
(α) such that x = x
(α) matches the graph of f
x
(x, α) =
0 in a neighborhood of (b, a).
Corollary 3.5
Given a function f(x, α), suppose that
1 a is a value of α and b = x
(a)
2 x
(α) satisfies f
x
(x
(α), α) = 0 near (b, a)
3 f(x, α) has continuous second derivatives near (b, a)
4 f
xx
(b, a) = 0
Then
dx
(a)
=
f
(b, a)
f
xx
(b, a)
This computes the derivative at a point. If, in some interval of α values, every point (x
(a), a)
satisfies these conditions, then we can extend this to a derivative function for x
(α).
dx
(α)
=
f
(x
(α), α)
f
xx
(x
(α), α)
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