We analyze the optimal life-cycle education decision of a single atomistic individual and show that the standard result of part-time education and part-time work throughout the life-cycle holds only under very special and unrealistic assumptions. Once these assumptions are relaxed, different...

We use two stage optimal control techniques to solve some adoption problems under embodied technical change. We first solve a benchmark problem without learning behavior. At the date of switching, the consumption level is shown to drop, as the relative price of capital goes down (obsolescence)....

Given disparate beliefs about economic growth, technical change and damage caused by climate change, this paper starts with the seeming impossibility of determining a unique time profile of the social costs of carbon as a benchmark for climate negotiations and for infrastructure decisions that...

There is a growing concern that risks of disease outbreak and pandemics are increasing over time. We consider optimal investments in prevention before an outbreak using an endogenous risk approach within an optimal control setting. Using the threat of pandemic influenza as an illustrative...

Given disparate beliefs about economic growth, technical change and damage caused by climate change, this paper starts with the seeming impossibility of determining a unique time profile of the social costs of carbon as a benchmark for climate negotiations and for infrastructure decisions that...