Nonlinear functional analysis and optimal economic growth

A problem of existence and characterization of solutions of optimal growth models in many sector economies is studied The social utility to be optimized is a generalized form of a preference depending additively on consumption at the different dates of the planning period. The optimization b rattrirted to a set of admissible growth paths defined by production-investment-consumption relations described by a system of differential equations. Sufficient conditions are given for existence of a solution in a Hilbert space of paths, without convexity assumptions on either the utilities of the technology, using techniques of nonlinear functional analysis. A characterization is given of the utilities which re continuous with respect to the Hilbert space norm. Under convexity assumptions a characteristic is also given of optimal and efficient solutions by competitive prices.