Title

A Unified View Of Ostensibly Disparate Isoperimetric Variational Problems

Keywords

Entropy; Intertemporal utility maximization; Isoperimetric calculus of variations problems; Nonrenewable resource economics; Reciprocal isoperimetric problems

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. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

3-1-2009

Publication Title

Applied Mathematics Letters

Volume

22

Issue

3

Number of Pages

332-335

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aml.2008.04.004

Socpus ID

56949084729 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/56949084729

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS