Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/119546 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
Memorandum No. 8/2015
Publisher: 
University of Oslo, Department of Economics, Oslo
Abstract: 
Catastrophic risk is currently a hotly debated topic. This paper contributes to this debate by showing two results. First it shown that the value function in dynamic optimization can have an infinite derivative at some point even if the model specification has functional forms that are finite and without infinite derivatives. In the process it is shown that standard phase diagrams used in optimal control theory contain more information than generally recognized. Second we show that even if the value function has an infinite derivative at some point, it is not correct that this point should be avoided in finite time at almost any cost. The results are illustrated in a simple linear-quadratic fisheries model, but proven for a more general class of growth functions.
Subjects: 
catastrophic risk
fisheries
optimal control
shadow prices
JEL: 
C61
Q22
Q54
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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