Title

A unified view of ostensibly disparate isoperimetric variational problems

Authors

Authors

M. R. Caputo

Comments

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Abstract

A class of isoperimetric variational calculus problems is solved. It is shown that the said class ties together seemingly dissimilar optimal control problems in economics and physics, to wit, the classical nonrenewable resource extracting model of the firm, the model of the patient worker, and the principle of maximum entropy. In particular, it is shown that a certain family of wealth maximizing nonrenewable resource extracting firms extract at the rate that maximizes the entropy of extraction, and that patient intertemporal utility maximizing individuals do not procrastinate and maximize the entropy of leisure. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Applied Mathematics Letters

Volume

22

Issue/Number

3

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Document Type

Article

First Page

332

Last Page

335

WOS Identifier

WOS:000262343900008

ISSN

0893-9659

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