Policy makers constantly face optimal control problems: what controls allow to achieve certain targets in, e.g., GDP growth or inflation? Conventionally this is done by applying certain linear-quadratic optimization algorithms to dynamic econometric models. Several algorithms extend this...

Increasing renewable generation results in growing supply uncertainty. By now hydrostorages are the most efficient way of smoothing uncertain power supply. In liberalized and competitive markets the valuation of hydro storages investment projects needs to take the market information and...

The linear-quadratic (LQ) optimization is a close to standard technique in the optimal control framework. LQ is very well researched and there are many extensions for more sophisticated scenarios like nonlinear models. Usually, the quadratic objective function is taken as a prerequisite for...

We propose a method to estimate both whether there is an overall infrastructure shortage and the optimal share of infrastructure in gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). This is based on a two-gap model and linear programming, and is illustrated with the case of Mexico (1950-1985). The results...

Public health implications of COVID-19 resulted in widespread business closures and job losses. Disruptions in the service and transportation sectors, acute reductions in income, and an uptick in unemployment were the outcome of pandemic mitigating procedures adopted by many governments. While...

This note describes methods for solving deterministic and stochastic versions of the discrete-time Ramsey model of economic growth. We derive an iterative procedure for solving the Euler equation and apply it to an example adapted from Pan (2007).

These notes provide an intuitive introduction to dynamic programming. The first two Sections, which can be skipped, present the standard deterministic Ramsey model using the Lagrangian approach. Section 3 reformulates the Ramsey problem by means of a Bellman equation, while Section 4 shows how...

In the recent work of Dempster, Evstigneev and Taksar (2006) it has been shown that the von Neumann-Gale model of economic dynamics can serve as a convenient and natural framework for the analysis of questions of asset pricing and hedging under transaction costs. The present article focuses on a...

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...