IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/emetrp/v92y2024i1p111-140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do not Blame Bellman: It Is Koopmans' Fault

Author

Listed:
  • Gaetano Bloise
  • Cuong Le Van
  • Yiannis Vailakis

Abstract

We provide a unified approach to stochastic dynamic programming with recursive utility based on an elementary application of Tarski's fixed point theorem. We establish that the exclusive source of multiple values is the presence of multiple recursive utilities consistent with the given aggregator, each yielding a legitimate value of the recursive program. We also present sufficient conditions ensuring a unique value of the recursive program in some circumstances. Overall, acknowledging the unavoidable failure of uniqueness in general, we argue that the greatest fixed point of the Bellman operator should have a privileged position.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaetano Bloise & Cuong Le Van & Yiannis Vailakis, 2024. "Do not Blame Bellman: It Is Koopmans' Fault," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 92(1), pages 111-140, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:emetrp:v:92:y:2024:i:1:p:111-140
    DOI: 10.3982/ECTA20386
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA20386
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3982/ECTA20386?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Stachurski, 2009. "Economic Dynamics: Theory and Computation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262012774, December.
    2. Takashi Kamihigashi, 2014. "Elementary results on solutions to the bellman equation of dynamic programming: existence, uniqueness, and convergence," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 56(2), pages 251-273, June.
    3. Le Van, Cuong & Vailakis, Yiannis, 2005. "Recursive utility and optimal growth with bounded or unbounded returns," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 187-209, August.
    4. Jaroslav Borovička & John Stachurski, 2020. "Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Existence and Uniqueness of Recursive Utilities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 1457-1493, June.
    5. Timothy Christensen, 2014. "Nonparametric Stochastic Discount Factor Decomposition," Papers 1412.4428, arXiv.org, revised May 2017.
    6. Timothy M. Christensen, 2017. "Nonparametric Stochastic Discount Factor Decomposition," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 1501-1536, September.
    7. Larry G. Epstein & Stanley E. Zin, 2013. "Substitution, risk aversion and the temporal behavior of consumption and asset returns: A theoretical framework," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 12, pages 207-239, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Philippe Bich & Jean-Pierre Drugeon & Lisa Morhaim, 2018. "On temporal aggregators and dynamic programming," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(3), pages 787-817, October.
    9. Rui Albuquerque & Martin Eichenbaum & Victor Xi Luo & Sergio Rebelo, 2016. "Valuation Risk and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2861-2904, December.
    10. Philippe Weil, 1993. "Precautionary Savings and the Permanent Income Hypothesis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(2), pages 367-383.
    11. Peter A. Streufert, 1990. "Stationary Recursive Utility and Dynamic Programming under the Assumption of Biconvergence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(1), pages 79-97.
    12. John Y. Campbell & Luis M. Viceira, 1999. "Consumption and Portfolio Decisions when Expected Returns are Time Varying," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 114(2), pages 433-495.
    13. Christensen, Timothy M., 2022. "Existence and uniqueness of recursive utilities without boundedness," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    14. Alvarez, Fernando & Stokey, Nancy L., 1998. "Dynamic Programming with Homogeneous Functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 167-189, September.
    15. Boud, John III, 1990. "Recursive utility and the Ramsey problem," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 326-345, April.
    16. Marinacci, Massimo & Montrucchio, Luigi, 2010. "Unique solutions for stochastic recursive utilities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(5), pages 1776-1804, September.
    17. Jorge DurÂn, 2000. "On dynamic programming with unbounded returns," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 15(2), pages 339-352.
    18. Chattopadhyay, Subir, 2018. "The unit root property and optimality with a continuum of states—Pure exchange," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 105-118.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bloise, Gaetano & Vailakis, Yiannis, 2018. "Convex dynamic programming with (bounded) recursive utility," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 118-141.
    2. Philippe Bich & Jean-Pierre Drugeon & Lisa Morhaim, 2018. "On temporal aggregators and dynamic programming," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(3), pages 787-817, October.
    3. Jaroslav Borovička & John Stachurski, 2020. "Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Existence and Uniqueness of Recursive Utilities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 1457-1493, June.
    4. Philippe Bich & Jean-Pierre Drugeon & Lisa Morhaim, 2018. "On Temporal Aggregators and Dynamic Programming," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01437496, HAL.
    5. Christensen, Timothy M., 2022. "Existence and uniqueness of recursive utilities without boundedness," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    6. Bäuerle, Nicole & Jaśkiewicz, Anna, 2018. "Stochastic optimal growth model with risk sensitive preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 181-200.
    7. Thomas J. Sargent & John Stachurski, 2024. "Dynamic Programming: Finite States," Papers 2401.10473, arXiv.org.
    8. Guanlong Ren & John Stachurski, 2018. "Dynamic Programming with Recursive Preferences: Optimality and Applications," Papers 1812.05748, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2020.
    9. Le Van, Cuong & Vailakis, Yiannis, 2005. "Recursive utility and optimal growth with bounded or unbounded returns," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 187-209, August.
    10. V. Filipe Martins-da-Rocha & Yiannis Vailakis, 2013. "Fixed point for local contractions: Applications to recursive utility," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 9(1), pages 23-33, March.
    11. Philippe Bich & Jean-Pierre Drugeon & Lisa Morhaim, 2015. "On Aggregators and Dynamic Programming," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01169552, HAL.
    12. 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).
    13. Nicole Bauerle & Anna Ja'skiewicz, 2015. "Stochastic Optimal Growth Model with Risk Sensitive Preferences," Papers 1509.05638, arXiv.org.
    14. Philippe Bich & Jean-Pierre Drugeon & Lisa Morhaim, 2015. "On Aggregators and Dynamic Programming," Post-Print halshs-01169552, HAL.
    15. Toda, Alexis Akira, 2014. "Incomplete market dynamics and cross-sectional distributions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 310-348.
    16. Jean-Pierre Drugeon & Thai Ha-Huy & Thi Do Hanh Nguyen, 2019. "On maximin dynamic programming and the rate of discount," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(3), pages 703-729, April.
    17. Cuong Le Van & Lisa Morhaim & Yiannis Vailakis, 2008. "Monotone Concave Operators: An application to the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Bellman equation," Working Papers hal-00294828, HAL.
    18. Cuong Le Van & Lisa Morhaim & Yiannis Vailakis, 2008. "Monotone Concave Operators: An application to the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Bellman equation," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00294828, HAL.
    19. Timothy M. Christensen, 2020. "Existence and uniqueness of recursive utilities without boundedness," Papers 2008.00963, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2021.
    20. Philippe Bich & Jean-Pierre Drugeon & Lisa Morhaim, 2015. "On Aggregators and Dynamic Programming," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 15053, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.

    More about this item

    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:wly:emetrp:v:92:y:2024:i:1:p:111-140. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essssea.html .

    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.