Abstract: In this article we analyze how the presence of thresholds influences multi agent decision making situations. We introduce a class of discounted autonomous optimal control problems with threshold effects and discuss tools to analyze these problems. Later, using these results we...

In this paper, we present a new version of the OPTCON algorithm for the optimal control of nonlinear stochastic systems with special reference to econometric models. It delivers approximate numerical solutions of optimum control problems with a quadratic objective function for nonlinear...

We develop a theory of optimal stopping problems under ambiguity in continuous time. Using results from (backward) stochastic calculus, we characterize the value function as the smallest (nonlinear) supermartingale dominating the payoff process. For Markovian models, we derive an adjusted...

We consider the problem of maximizing terminal utility in a model where asset prices are driven by Wiener processes, but where the various rates of returns are allowed to be arbitrary semimartingales. The only information available to the investor is the one generated by the asset prices and, in...

This paper explores the implications of time varying volatility for optimal monetary policy and the measurement of welfare costs. We show how macro-economic models with linear and quadratic state dependence in their variance structure can be used for the analysis of optimal policy within the...

In this paper we present an inter-temporal optimization problem of a representative R&D firm that simultaneously invests in horizontal and vertical innovations. We posit that learning-by-doing makes the process of quality improvements a positive function of the number of existing technologies...

We introduce a continuous time overlapping generations demographic model, in which a social planner seeks to generate an optimal policy for influencing the demographic change of the underlying population in a neoclassical growth model. The model has the notable feature that the underlying state...

Abstract: The robust permanent income model discussed in a number of works, see e.g. Hansen et al. (1999, 2002), is reformulated as a linear quadratic tracking problem with a time-varying intercept following a ‘Return to Normality’ model. The results in Tucci (2005), which...

This paper explores the implications of time varying volatility for optimal monetary policy and the measurement of welfare costs. We show how macroeconomic models with linear and quadratic state dependence in their variance structure can be used for the analysis of optimal policy within the...