In mathematics and mathematical economics, correspondence is a term with several related but not identical meanings.

In general mathematics, correspondence is an alternate term for a relation between two sets. Hence a correspondence of sets X and Y is a subset of the Cartesian product X×Y of the sets.

In economics, a correspondence between the sets A and B is a map f:A→P(B) from the elements of a set A to the subsets of a set B. This is similar to a correspondence as defined in general mathematics (i.e. a relation,) except that the range is over sets instead of elements. However, there is usually the additional property that for all a in A, f(a) is not empty. In other words, each element in A maps to a non-empty subset of B; or in terms of a relation R as subset of A×B, R projects to A surjectively. A correspondence with this additional property is thought of as the generalization of a function, rather than as a special case of a relation.

An example of a correspondence in this sense is the best response correspondence in game theory, which gives the optimal action for a player as a function of the strategies of all other players. If there is always a unique best action given what the other players are doing, then this is a function. If for some opponent's strategy, there is a set of best responses that are equally good, then this is a correspondence.

In algebraic geometry a correspondence between algebraic varieties V and W is in the same fashion a subset R of V×W, which is in addition required to be closed in the Zariski topology. It therefore means any relation that is defined by algebraic equations. There are some important examples, even when V and W are algebraic curves: for example the Hecke operators of modular form theory may be considered as correspondences of modular curves.

A one-to-one correspondence is an alternate name for a bijection.