I develop a dynamic stochastic model of individual choices about health insurance, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption and medical treatment. The primary objective is to estimate the parameters of the model to conduct counter-factual health policy experiments. The model is estimated through...

The main computational tool for solving SUR or simultaneous equations models is the generalized QR decomposition (GQRD) of an exogenous matrix A and the Cholesky factorization of a dispersion matrix C. Initially the GQRD computes the QRD of A and then the RQD of QC, where Q is an orthogonal...

Anderson & Moore describe a powerful method for solving linear saddle point models. The algorithm has proved useful in a wide array of applications including analyzing linear perfect foresight models, providing initial solutions and asymptotic constraints for nonlinear models. However, many...

A popular argument states that most of the diversification in a portfolio can be obtained with a rather small number of securities. In this paper we present three algorithms to approach the underlying NP-hard problem of portfolio optimization with a cardinality constraint. All three of these...

\\begin{abstract} Lucas (1976) pointed out, that when optimization is performed on a deterministic macro model, the resulting policy may not reflect the true optimal solution. Private agents may react to announced policies and consequently model parameters will start to drift. The aim of this...

Nonlinear infinite horizon continuous time optimization problems are widely used in economics. However numerical solutions necessarily require reformulating the problem into a discrete finite approximation. The method proposed by Mercenier and Michel (1994) minimizes approximation error at...

This paper explores the question whether boundedly rational agents learn to behave optimally when asked to voluntarily contribute to a public good. The decision process of individuals is described by an Evolutionary Algorithm. We find that the contribution level converges towards the Nash...

The parametric path method applies projection methods to compute the equilibrium path of economic variables in infinite-horizon dynamic models. We exploit the special structure of economic time paths common in such models. This structure drastically reduces dimensionality and reduces computing...

The purpose of the paper is to derive and illustrate a new suboptimal-consistent feedback solution for infinite-horizon linear-quadratic dynamic Stackelberg games which is in the same solution space as the infinite-horizon dynamic programming feedback solution, but which puts the leader in a...

In this paper we investigate the performance of the threshold accepting heuristic for the index tracking problem. The index tracking problem consists in minimizing the tracking error between a portfolio and a benchmark. The objective is to replicate the performance of a given index upon the...