In this paper an optimal control model is presented to design enforcement programs minimizing the social costs from both the market and crackdown.By using the maximum principle we show that performing an enforcement policy that leads to a collapse of the drug market is more likely to be optimal...

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 analyze disinflation in two environments.One in which the central bank has perfect knowledge, in the sense that it understands and observes the process by which private sector inflation expectations are generated, and one in which the central bank has to learn the private sector...

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...

In this paper we present a budget-constrained optimal control model aimed at finding the optimal enforcement profile for a street-level, illicit drug crackdown operation. The objective is defined as minimizing the number of dealers dealing at the end of the crackdown operation, using this as a...

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....