This paper provides a concise guide to dynamic optimization with an integral treatment on various optimal control and dynamic programming problems. It presents essential theorems and methods for obtaining and characterizing solutions to these problems. The paper discusses Pontryagin's maximum...

In this paper, we state sufficiency, necessity, convergence, existence and uniqueness results for infinite horizon optimal control problems with unbounded payoffs in which the assumptions are very weak and there are no topological assumptions about the model components. We also state a sequence...

This paper develops an approximate closed-form optimal portfolio allocation formula for a spot asset whose variance follows a GARCH(1,1) process. We consider an investor with constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility who wants to maximize the expected utility from terminal wealth under a...

We show that the equivalence between certain problems of singular stochastic control (SSC) and related questions of optimal stopping known for convex performance criteria (see, for example, Karatzas and Shreve (1984)) continues to hold in a non convex problem provided a related discretionary...

Dynamic Programming (DP) is a process of deriving an optimal solution to a mathematical problem that has an objective function and environmentally varying limitations. DP has some difficulties to set up structural equations as in other management science techniques. In this context, DP,...

This paper extends the Euler Equation (EE) representation of dynamic decision problems to a general class of discrete choice models and shows that the advantages of this approach apply not only to the estimation of structural parameters but also to the solution of the model and the evaluation of...

This chapter is concerned with numerical simulation of dynamic economic models. We focus on some basic algorithms and assess their accuracy and stability properties. This analysis is useful for an optimal implementation and testing of these procedures, as well as to evaluate their performance....

This paper discusses solution procedures for real business cycle (RBC) models. First, we show that the most often used solution methods, the linear-quadratic approximation, the Lagrange multiplier, and the Euler equation approach all lead to the same decision function. Second, we demonstrate...

Cross-sector labor reallocation is associated with costs at the micro level ranging from the costs of geographical relocation and skill change/adaptation to unemployment. We show that monotonous reallocation paths minimize the aggregate reallocation costs in the three-sector framework (relating...

We introduce a computational technique- precomputation of integrals - that makes it possible to construct conditional expectation functions in dynamic stochastic models in the initial stage of a solution procedure. This technique is very general: it works for a broad class of approximating...