We establish some elementary results on solutions to the Bellman equation without introducing any topological assumption. Under a small number of conditions, we show that the Bellman equation has a unique solution in a certain set, that this solution is the value function, and that the value...

In this paper, we give Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for a Solution of the Belman Equation to be the Value Function. This result is a general principle. It requires no structure beyond the common framework of discrete-time stationary optimization problems with time-additive returns. In...

We establish some elementary results on solutions to the Bellman equation without introducing any topological assumption. Under a small number of conditions, we show that the Bellman equation has a unique solution in a certain set, that this solution is the value function, and that the value...

In this note, we show that the least fixed point of the Bellman operator in a certain set can be computed by value iteration whether or not the fixed point is the value function. As an application, we show one of the main results of Kamihigashi (2014, "Elementary results on solutions to the...

In this note, we discuss an order-theoretic approach to dynamic programming. In particular, we explain how order-theoretic fixed point theorems can be used to establish the existence of a fixed point of the Bellman operator, as well as why they are not sufficient to characterize the value...

We establish some elementary results on solutions to the Bellman equation without introducing any topological assumption. Under a small number of conditions, we show that the Bellman equation has a unique solution in a certain set, that this solution is the value function, and that the value...

In this note, we show that the least xed point of the Bellman op- erator in a certain set can be computed by value iteration whether or not the xed point is the value function. As an application, we show one of the main results of Kamihigashi (2014a) with a simpler proof.

This note studies a general nonstationary infinite-horizon optimization problem in discrete time. We allow the state space in each period to be an arbitrary set, and the return function in each period to be unbounded. We do not require discounting, and do not require the constraint...