Optimal control of pollutants with delayed stock accumulation

Ralph Winkler

We study the optimal control of a pollutant that accumulates with a delay.We find that optimal paths are, in general, non-monotonic and oscillatory, but monotonic if the objective function is additively separable. Hence, using additively separable objective functions as an approximation to a general objective function may be a misspecification. With a numerical example we illustrate that an additively separable approximation performs considerably worse in delayed compared to instantaneous stock accumulation.

MoreLess

Year of publication:	[2008]
Authors:	Winkler, Ralph
Publisher:	Zurich : CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich
Subject:	additively separable objective \| approximated objective \| delayed optimal control \| optimal pollution control \| Umweltbelastung \| Pollution \| Umweltschutz \| Environmental protection \| Mathematische Optimierung \| Mathematical programming \| Kontrolltheorie \| Control theory \| Umweltökonomik \| Environmental economics \| Theorie \| Theory