In this paper we propose a unifying approach to the study of recursive economic problems. Postulating an aggregator function as the fundamental expression of tastes, we explore conditions under which a utility function can be constructed. We also modify the usual dynamic programming arguments to...

We propose a new approach to the issue of existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Bellman equation, exploiting an emerging class of methods, called monotone map methods, pioneered in the work of Krasnosel'skii-Zabreiko (1984). The approach is technically simple and intuitive. It is derived...

The paper extends the canonical representative agent Ramsey model to include heterogeneous agents and elastic labor supply. The welfare maximization problem is analyzed and shown to be equivalent to a non-stationary reduced form model. An iterative procedure is exploited to prove the...