This paper analyzes the complexity of the "contraction fixed point problem": compute an epsilon-approximation to the fixed point "V"*Gamma("V"*) of a contraction mapping Gamma that maps a Banach space "B-sub-d" of continuous functions of "d" variables into itself. We focus on "quasi linear...

This paper provides an empirical analysis of how the U.S. Social Security and Medicare system affects the labor supply of older males in the presence of incomplete markets. The authors estimate a dynamic programming model of the joint labor supply and Social Security acceptance decision. The...

This paper formulates a simple, regenerative, optimal-stopping model of bus-eng ine replacement to describe the behavior of Harold Zurcher, superinte ndent of maintenance at the Madison (Wisconsin) Metropolitan Bus Comp any. Admittedly, few people are likely to take particular interest in Harold...

This paper introduces random versions of successive approximations and multigrid algorithms for computing approximate solutions to a class of finite and infinite horizon Markovian decision problems. The author proves that these algorithms succeed in breaking the 'curse of dimensionality' for a...