The Econometric Society Australasian Meeting in 1997 was hosted by the economics department at the University of Melbourne on July 2 to 4 with Peter Bardsley (economics) and Vance L. Martin (econometrics) as cochairpersons. Special features consisted of a star-studded lineup of invited speakers, the inaugural E.J. Hannan lecture, a range of special seminars in economic theory and econometric theory, and a number of nonacademic but spirited special events that took place both during and after the conference.

Elizabeth Dolomont joined the Cowles Foundation as my secretary in 1984 and retired in December 1997. Over the intervening 14 years, Elizabeth has been my personal assistant at Yale in running the journal Econometric Theory.

This book is a collection of matrix results that the author found important for his own work. To make the book reasonably self-contained, the author has also added many elementary results. The book contains definitions and results only and no proofs.