IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/16911.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Training a Sluggish System

Author

Listed:
  • Eliaz, Kfir
  • Spiegler, Ran

Abstract

Many organizational and biological systems need to maintain preparedness for external challenges. However, such systems tend to change their capabilities only gradually. How should we design training plans to enhance such systems' long-run preparedness? We present a model of optimal training plans for a rational, slowly adjusting system. A "trainer" commits to a Markov process governing the evolution of training intensity. At every time period, the system adjusts its "capability", which can only change by one unit at a time. The trainer maximizes long-run capability, subject to an upper bound on average training intensity. We consider two models of the system's adjustment: myopic/mechanistic and forward-looking. We characterize the optimal training plan in both cases and show how stochastic, time-varying intensity (resembling "periodization" techniques familiar from exercise physiology) dramatically increases long-run capability.

Suggested Citation

  • Eliaz, Kfir & Spiegler, Ran, 2022. "Training a Sluggish System," CEPR Discussion Papers 16911, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16911
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP16911
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

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

    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:cpr:ceprdp:16911. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.