Minimum Impatience Theorems for Recursive Economic Models

This book contributes to the lively discussion about the
reasons for and thepossible implications of the occurrence
of non-linear phenomena and chaos indynamic economic
systems. The author takes a fresh look at intertemporal
decision problems and shows how the time preference rate of
the decision maker relates to the dynamic complexity of the
optimal paths. It turns out that in order to get
complicated or chaotic optimal paths the decision maker
has to be sufficiently impatient. In this sense, the Minimum
Impatience Theorems supplement the existing literature on
"turnpike theorems" and global asymptotic stability of
normative economic systems. The framework in which the
results are derived is a very general dynamic optimization
problem with recursive (stationary) utility functionals.
Both the case where time is a discrete variable and the case
of continuous time models are treated.