Abstract: This paper considers a firm that has the option to undertake product innovations. For each product innovation the firm has to install a new production plant. We find that investments are larger and occur in a later stadium when more of the old capital stock needs to be scrapped....

Abstract: This paper determines the optimal timing of dike heightenings as well as the corresponding optimal dike heightenings to protect against floods. To derive the optimal policy we design an algorithm based on the Impulse Control Maximum Principle. In this way the paper presents one of the...

This paper considers a class of optimal control problems that allows jumps in the state variable. We present the necessary optimality conditions of the Impulse Control Maximum Principle based on the current value formulation. By reviewing the existing impulse control models in the literature, we...

The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, this thesis extends the existing theory on Impulse Control by deriving the necessary optimality conditions in current value formulation and provide a transformation such that the Impulse Control Maximum Principle can be applied to problems...

Numerous optimal control models analyzed in economics are formulated as discounted infinite time horizon problems, where the defining functions are nonlinear as well in the states as in the controls. As a consequence solutions can often only be found numerically. Moreover, the long run optimal...

This paper considers the problem of how to price a conspicuous product when the economy is in a recession that disrupts capital markets. A conspicuous product in this context is a luxury good for which demand is increasing in brand image. Brand image here means the ability of a consumer to...