Minimum time problems in Economics

We analyze the connection between the optimal solutions of minimum time and fixed final time optimal control problems. We discuss some controllability conditions which guarantee the equivalence of the two problems. In fact, under such conditions, not only does an optimal control maximize/minimize the objective functional, but it does it in minimum time too. We apply the results to some Economics models in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the optimal solutions of the related control problems. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2005