IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/dyngam/v6y2016i2d10.1007_s13235-015-0177-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ruling Out Multiplicity of Smooth Equilibria in Dynamic Games: A Hyperbolic Discounting Example

Author

Listed:
  • Lilia Maliar

    (Stanford University)

  • Serguei Maliar

    (Office 316J, Lucas Hall, Santa Clara University)

Abstract

The literature that conducts numerical analysis of equilibrium in models with hyperbolic (quasi-geometric) discounting reports difficulties in achieving convergence. Surprisingly, numerical methods fail to converge even in a simple, deterministic optimal growth problem that has a well-behaved, smooth closed-form solution. We argue that the reason for nonconvergence is that the generalized Euler equation has a continuum of smooth solutions, each of which is characterized by a different integration constant. We propose two types of restrictions that can rule out the multiplicity: boundary conditions and shape restrictions on equilibrium policy functions. With these additional restrictions, the studied numerical methods deliver a unique smooth solution for both the deterministic and stochastic problems in a wide range of the model’s parameters.

Suggested Citation

  • Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar, 2016. "Ruling Out Multiplicity of Smooth Equilibria in Dynamic Games: A Hyperbolic Discounting Example," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 243-261, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:dyngam:v:6:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s13235-015-0177-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s13235-015-0177-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13235-015-0177-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13235-015-0177-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. A. Pollak, 1968. "Consistent Planning," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 35(2), pages 201-208.
    2. Datta, Manjira & Mirman, Leonard J. & Reffett, Kevin L., 2002. "Existence and Uniqueness of Equilibrium in Distorted Dynamic Economies with Capital and Labor," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 377-410, April.
    3. Matthias Messner & Nicola Pavoni & Christopher Sleet, 2012. "Recursive Methods for Incentive Problems," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(4), pages 501-525, October.
    4. Matthew Rabin & Ted O'Donoghue, 1999. "Doing It Now or Later," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 103-124, March.
    5. David I. Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman, 1998. "Self-Control and Saving for Retirement," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 29(1), pages 91-196.
    6. Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei, 2013. "Envelope condition method versus endogenous grid method for solving dynamic programming problems," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 262-266.
    7. Mirman, Leonard J. & Morand, Olivier F. & Reffett, Kevin L., 2008. "A qualitative approach to Markovian equilibrium in infinite horizon economies with capital," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 75-98, March.
    8. B. Douglas Bernheim & Debraj Ray & Şevin Yeltekin, 2015. "Poverty and Self‐Control," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83(5), pages 1877-1911, September.
    9. White, Matthew N., 2015. "The method of endogenous gridpoints in theory and practice," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 26-41.
    10. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar & John B. Taylor & Inna Tsener, 2020. "A tractable framework for analyzing a class of nonstationary Markov models," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(4), pages 1289-1323, November.
    11. Tauchen, George, 1986. "Finite state markov-chain approximations to univariate and vector autoregressions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 177-181.
    12. Albert Marcet & Ramon Marimon, 2019. "Recursive Contracts," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(5), pages 1589-1631, September.
    13. Harris, Christopher & Laibson, David, 2001. "Dynamic Choices of Hyperbolic Consumers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 935-957, July.
    14. Arellano, Cristina & Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei & Tsyrennikov, Viktor, 2016. "Envelope condition method with an application to default risk models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 436-459.
    15. Nicola Pavoni & Christopher Sleet & Matthias Messner, 2018. "The Dual Approach to Recursive Optimization: Theory and Examples," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(1), pages 133-172, January.
    16. Carroll, Christopher D., 2006. "The method of endogenous gridpoints for solving dynamic stochastic optimization problems," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 312-320, June.
    17. William A. Brock & Leonard J. Mirman, 2001. "Optimal Economic Growth And Uncertainty: The Discounted Case," Chapters, in: W. D. Dechert (ed.), Growth Theory, Nonlinear Dynamics and Economic Modelling, chapter 1, pages 3-37, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Sorger, Gerhard, 2004. "Consistent planning under quasi-geometric discounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 118-129, September.
    19. Per Krusell & Anthony A. Smith, Jr., 2003. "Consumption--Savings Decisions with Quasi--Geometric Discounting," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(1), pages 365-375, January.
    20. Liutang Gong & William Smith & Heng-fu Zou, 2007. "Asset Prices and Hyperbolic Discounting," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 8(2), pages 397-414, November.
    21. E. S. Phelps & R. A. Pollak, 1968. "On Second-Best National Saving and Game-Equilibrium Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 35(2), pages 185-199.
    22. Łukasz Balbus & Kevin Reffett & Łukasz Woźny, 2015. "Time consistent Markov policies in dynamic economies with quasi-hyperbolic consumers," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 44(1), pages 83-112, February.
    23. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 2001. "Markov Perfect Equilibrium: I. Observable Actions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 191-219, October.
    24. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1996. "Reconsideration-Proofness: A Refinement for Infinite Horizon Time Inconsistency," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 33-54, July.
    25. Lionel W. McKenzie, 2012. "turnpike theory," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics,, Palgrave Macmillan.
    26. Chatterjee, Satyajit & Eyigungor, Burcu, 2016. "Continuous Markov equilibria with quasi-geometric discounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 467-494.
    27. Kydland, Finn E. & Prescott, Edward C., 1980. "Dynamic optimal taxation, rational expectations and optimal control," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 79-91, May.
    28. Aruoba, S. Boragan & Fernandez-Villaverde, Jesus & Rubio-Ramirez, Juan F., 2006. "Comparing solution methods for dynamic equilibrium economies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 2477-2508, December.
    29. Vassili Kolokoltsov & Wei Yang, 2012. "Turnpike Theorems for Markov Games," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 294-312, September.
    30. Joshi, Sumit, 1997. "Turnpike Theorems in Nonconvex Nonstationary Environments," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(1), pages 225-248, February.
    31. Santos, Manuel S., 1999. "Numerical solution of dynamic economic models," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 311-386, Elsevier.
    32. Coleman, Wilbur John, II, 1991. "Equilibrium in a Production Economy with an Income Tax," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 1091-1104, July.
    33. George-Marios Angeletos, 2001. "The Hyberbolic Consumption Model: Calibration, Simulation, and Empirical Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 47-68, Summer.
    34. Abreu, Dilip & Pearce, David & Stacchetti, Ennio, 1986. "Optimal cartel equilibria with imperfect monitoring," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 251-269, June.
    35. Barillas, Francisco & Fernandez-Villaverde, Jesus, 2007. "A generalization of the endogenous grid method," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 2698-2712, August.
    36. Harold Cole & Felix Kubler, 2012. "Recursive Contracts, Lotteries and Weakly Concave Pareto Sets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(4), pages 479-500, October.
    37. Robert A. Becker, 2012. "Optimal growth with heterogeneous agents and the twisted turnpike: An example," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 8(1), pages 27-47, March.
    38. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    39. John Stachurski, 2009. "Economic Dynamics: Theory and Computation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262012774, December.
    40. Tapan Mitra & Yaw Nyarko, 1991. "On the existence of optimal processes in non-stationary environments," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 245-270, October.
    41. Wolfgang Leininger, 1986. "The Existence of Perfect Equilibria in a Model of Growth with Altruism between Generations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(3), pages 349-367.
    42. Giulio Fella, 2014. "A generalized endogenous grid method for non-smooth and non-concave problems," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(2), pages 329-344, April.
    43. Zhigang Feng & Jianjun Miao & Adrian Peralta‐Alva & Manuel S. Santos, 2014. "Numerical Simulation Of Nonoptimal Dynamic Equilibrium Models," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55(1), pages 83-110, February.
    44. Bezalel Peleg & Menahem E. Yaari, 1973. "On the Existence of a Consistent Course of Action when Tastes are Changing," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(3), pages 391-401.
    45. Erzo G. J. Luttmer & Thomas Mariotti, 2003. "Subjective Discounting in an Exchange Economy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 959-989, October.
    46. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar, 2003. "Solving The Neoclassical Growth Model With Quasi-Geometric Discounting: Non-Linear Euler-Equation Models," Working Papers. Serie AD 2003-23, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    47. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar, 2005. "Solving the Neoclassical Growth Model with Quasi-Geometric Discounting: A Grid-Based Euler-Equation Method," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 163-172, October.
    48. Caplin, Andrew & Leahy, John, 2006. "The recursive approach to time inconsistency," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 134-156, November.
    49. B. Douglas Bernheim & Debraj Ray, 1986. "On the Existence of Markov-Consistent Plans under Production Uncertainty," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(5), pages 877-882.
    50. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar, 2004. "Quasi‐geometric discounting: A closed‐form solution under the exponential utility function," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 201-206, April.
    51. Balbus, Łukasz & Reffett, Kevin & Woźny, Łukasz, 2018. "On uniqueness of time-consistent Markov policies for quasi-hyperbolic consumers under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 293-310.
    52. Leonard Mirman & Olivier Morand & Kevin Reffett, "undated". "A Qualitative Theory of Markovian Equilibrium in Infinite Horizon Economies with Capital," Working Papers 2133376, Department of Economics, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.
    53. Majumdar, Mukul & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1987. "Optimal growth in a stochastic environment: Some sensitivity and turnpike results," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 116-133, October.
    54. Rustichini, Aldo, 1998. "Dynamic Programming Solution of Incentive Constrained Problems," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 329-354, February.
    55. Coleman, Wilbur II, 2000. "Uniqueness of an Equilibrium in Infinite-Horizon Economies Subject to Taxes and Externalities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 71-78, November.
    56. Robert J. Barro, 1999. "Ramsey Meets Laibson in the Neoclassical Growth Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1125-1152.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Balbus, Łukasz & Reffett, Kevin & Woźny, Łukasz, 2022. "Time-consistent equilibria in dynamic models with recursive payoffs and behavioral discounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    2. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar & John B. Taylor & Inna Tsener, 2020. "A tractable framework for analyzing a class of nonstationary Markov models," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(4), pages 1289-1323, November.
    3. Balbus, Łukasz & Reffett, Kevin & Woźny, Łukasz, 2018. "On uniqueness of time-consistent Markov policies for quasi-hyperbolic consumers under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 293-310.
    4. Anna Jaśkiewicz & Andrzej S. Nowak, 2021. "Markov decision processes with quasi-hyperbolic discounting," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 189-229, April.
    5. Łukasz Balbus & Anna Jaśkiewicz & Andrzej S. Nowak, 2020. "Equilibria in Altruistic Economic Growth Models," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Łukasz Balbus & Kevin Reffett & Łukasz Woźny, 2015. "Time consistent Markov policies in dynamic economies with quasi-hyperbolic consumers," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 44(1), pages 83-112, February.
    2. Balbus, Łukasz & Reffett, Kevin & Woźny, Łukasz, 2018. "On uniqueness of time-consistent Markov policies for quasi-hyperbolic consumers under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 293-310.
    3. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar & John B. Taylor & Inna Tsener, 2020. "A tractable framework for analyzing a class of nonstationary Markov models," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(4), pages 1289-1323, November.
    4. Balbus, Łukasz & Reffett, Kevin & Woźny, Łukasz, 2022. "Time-consistent equilibria in dynamic models with recursive payoffs and behavioral discounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    5. Serguei Maliar & John Taylor & Lilia Maliar, 2016. "The Impact of Alternative Transitions to Normalized Monetary Policy," 2016 Meeting Papers 794, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Wozny Lukasz & Growiec Jakub, 2012. "Intergenerational Interactions in Human Capital Accumulation," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-47, June.
    7. Anna Jaśkiewicz & Andrzej S. Nowak, 2021. "Markov decision processes with quasi-hyperbolic discounting," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 189-229, April.
    8. Chatterjee, Satyajit & Eyigungor, Burcu, 2016. "Continuous Markov equilibria with quasi-geometric discounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 467-494.
    9. Arellano, Cristina & Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei & Tsyrennikov, Viktor, 2016. "Envelope condition method with an application to default risk models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 436-459.
    10. Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei, 2006. "The Neoclassical Growth Model with Heterogeneous Quasi-Geometric Consumers," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(3), pages 635-654, April.
    11. Balbus, Łukasz & Reffett, Kevin & Woźny, Łukasz, 2013. "A constructive geometrical approach to the uniqueness of Markov stationary equilibrium in stochastic games of intergenerational altruism," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1019-1039.
    12. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar, 2003. "Heterogeneity In The Degree Of Quasi-Geometric Discounting: The Distributional Implications," Working Papers. Serie AD 2003-28, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    13. Balbus, Łukasz & Reffett, Kevin & Woźny, Łukasz, 2012. "Stationary Markovian equilibrium in altruistic stochastic OLG models with limited commitment," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 115-132.
    14. Tyson, Christopher J., 2008. "Management of a capital stock by Strotz's naive planner," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 2214-2239, July.
    15. Hammond, Peter J & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1033, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    16. Kirill Borissov & Mikhail Pakhnin & Ronald Wendner, 2020. "Naive Agents with Quasi-hyperbolic Discounting and Perfect Foresight," EUSP Department of Economics Working Paper Series 2020/03, European University at St. Petersburg, Department of Economics.
    17. Edward C. Prescott & Kevin L. Reffett, 2016. "Preface: Special Issue on Dynamic Games in Macroeconomics," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 157-160, June.
    18. Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei, 2006. "Indeterminacy in a log-linearized neoclassical growth model with quasi-geometric discounting," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 492-505, May.
    19. Anke Gerbe & Kirsten I.M. Rohde, 2010. "Risk and Preference Reversals in Intertemporal Choice," Post-Print hal-00911832, HAL.
    20. Gerber, Anke & Rohde, Kirsten I.M., 2010. "Risk and preference reversals in intertemporal choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 654-668, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hyperbolic discounting; Quasi-geometric discounting; Time inconsistency; Markov perfect equilibrium; Markov games; Turnpike theorem; Neoclassical growth model; Endogenous gridpoints; Envelope condition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:dyngam:v:6:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s13235-015-0177-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.