Each topic is addressed in a week to a week and a half of course time. Readings are from the course text book:
[SLP] = Stokey, Nancy L., and Robert E. Lucas, Jr., with Edward C. Prescott. Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.
| Topic # | Topics | Readings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preliminaries; Euler Equations and Transversality Conditions; Principle of Optimality | Stokey, Lucas, and Prescott (SLP), chapters 3-4.1 |
| 2 | Bounded Returns; Differentiability of Value Function; Homogenous and Unbounded Returns; Applications | SLP, chapters 4-5 |
| 3 | Deterministic Global and Local Dynamics | SLP, chapter 6 |
| 4 | Stochastic Dynamic Programming; Applications; Markov Chains | SLP, chapters 9-11 |
| 5 | Weak Convergence; Applications | SLP, chapters 12-13 |
| 6 | Repeated Games and Dynamic Contracts | Abreu, Pearce, and Stachetti |
| 7 | Continuous-Time Dynamic Programming and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman PDE Equations | Fleming and Soner, chapter 1 |