Background When pairwise comparisons are used to express preferences for alternatives or judgments on criteria's importance, several methods can be used to derive priorities in multi-criteria decision-making. In the case of inconsistency, different methods give different results. Objectives The...

This paper proposes an approximation to the consumption function in the buffer-stock model. The approximation is based on the analytic properties of the consumption function in the buffer-stock model. In such model, the consumption function is increasing and concave and its derivative is bounded...

Time-consistency is a key feature of many important policy problems, such as those relating to optimal fiscal policy and optimal monetary policy. It is also important for private-sector decision-making through mechanisms such as quasi-geometric discounting. These problems are generally solved...

We show that the standard Value Function Iteration (VFI) algorithm has difficulties approximating models with jump discontinuities in policy functions. We find that VFI fails to accurately identify the location and size of jump discontinuities while other methods - such as the Endogenous Grid...

We show how to use a simple perturbation method to solve non-linear rational expectation models. Drawing from the applied mathematics literature we propose a method consisting of series expansions of the non-linear system around a known solution. The variables are represented in terms of their...

In this paper, I examine the welfare consequences of conventional approximation methods in business cycle analysis: the log-linear approximation of model dynamics and the second-order approximation of social welfare. In a canonical New Keynesian model, the approximation around the deterministic...

First-order approximation methods are a standard technique for analyzing the local dynamics of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models. Although for a wide class of DSGE models linear methods yield quite accurate solutions, some important economic issues such as portfolio choice and...

This paper proposes the use of analytical approximations to price an heterogeneous basket option combining commodity prices, foreign currencies and zero-coupon bonds. The performance of three moment matching approximations is examined: inverse gamma, Edgeworth expansion around the lognormal and...

Background When pairwise comparisons are used to express preferences for alternatives or judgments on criteria's importance, several methods can be used to derive priorities in multi-criteria decision-making. In the case of inconsistency, different methods give different results. Objectives The...

This paper introduces a nonlinear certainty-equivalent approximation method for dynamic stochastic problems. We first introduce a novel, stable, and efficient method for computing the decision rules in deterministic dynamic economic problems. We use the results as nonlinear and global...