Giorgio Fabbri

Solving optimal growth models with vintage capital: The dynamic programming approach

This paper deals with an endogenous growth model with vintage capital and, more precisely, with the AK model proposed in [R. Boucekkine, O. Licandro, L.A. Puch, F. del Rio, Vintage capital and the dynamics of the AK model, J. Econ. Theory 120 (1) (2005) 39–72]. In endogenous growth models the introduction of vintage capital allows to explain some growth facts but strongly increases the mathematical difficulties. So far, in this approach, the model is studied by the Maximum Principle; here we develop the Dynamic Programming approach to the same problem by obtaining sharper results and we provide more insight about the economic implications of the model. We explicitly find the value function, the closed loop formula that relates capital and investment, the optimal consumption paths and the long run equilibrium. The short run fluctuations of capital and investment and the relations with the standard AK model are analyzed. Finally the applicability to other models is also discussed.

Viscosity Solutions to Delay Differential Equations in Demo-Economy

Economic and demographic models governed by linear delay differential equations are expressed as optimal control problems in infinite dimensions. A general objective function is considered and the concavity of the Hamiltonian is not required. The value function is a viscosity solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation and a verification theorem is proved.

On Dynamic Programming in Economic Models Governed by DDEs

A family of optimal control problems for economic models, where state variables are driven by delay differential equations (DDEs) and subject to constraints, is treated by Bellmans dynamic programming in infinite dimensional spaces. An existence theorem is provided for the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation: the value function of the control problem solves the HJB equation in a suitable sense (although such value function cannot be computed explicitly). An AK model with vintage capital and an advertising model with delay effect are taken as examples.

On the Infinite-Dimensional Representation of Stochastic Controlled Systems with Delayed Control in the Diffusion Term

Abstract In the deterministic context a series of well established results allow to reformulate delay differential equations (DDEs) as evolution equations in infinite dimensional spaces. Several models in the theoretical economic literature have been studied using this reformulation. On the other hand, in the stochastic case only few results of this kind are available and only for specific problems. The contribution of the present letter is to present a way to reformulate in infinite dimension a prototype controlled stochastic DDE, where the control variable appears delayed in the diffusion term. As application, we present a model for quadratic risk minimization hedging of European options with execution delay and a time-to-build model with shock. Some comments concerning the possible employment of the dynamic programming after the reformulation in infinite dimension conclude the letter.