1 We investigate optimality of myopic policies using the single-unit decomposition approach in inventory management. We derive, under certain conditions, closed-form replenishment decisions, that we call a base-probability policy. That is, the order associated with a given customer is placed if and only if its arrival probability within the lead-time is higher than a threshold.

We focus on an opportunistic communication system consisting of multiple independent channels with time-varying states. With limited sensing, a user can only sense and access a subset of channels and accrue rewards determined by the states of the sensed channels. We formulate the problem of optimal sequential channel selection as a restless multi-armed bandit process, for which a powerful index...

Standard human capital models assume adolescents maximize discounted lifetime earnings when allocating effort to education. If adolescents are impatient, as evidence indicates, then attempts to explain present choices in terms of distant consumption may lack predictive power. This paper posits a model in which rational but myopic adolescents trade off privileges against leisure, while schools s...

Why do the poor make shortsighted choices in decisions that involve delayed payoffs? Foregoing immediate rewards for larger, later rewards requires that decision makers (i) believe future payoffs will occur and (ii) are not forced to take the immediate reward out of financial need. Low-income individuals may be both less likely to believe future payoffs will occur and less able to forego immedi...

We hypothesized a phenomenon that we term myopic misery. According to our hypothesis, sadness increases impatience and creates a myopic focus on obtaining money immediately instead of later. This focus, in turn, increases intertemporal discount rates and thereby produces substantial financial costs. In three experiments, we randomly assigned participants to sad- and neutral-state conditions, an...

This paper addresses the path selection problem arising in multi-hop sensor networks, e.g., for Smart Grids. In such scenarios, a communication system consisting of multiple multi-hop paths with time-varying hops connects a source and destination. To avoid interference and keep energy consumption low, the source can only send on one path and accrue a reward determined by the state of the traver...

In a standard New Keynesian model, a discretionary and myopic central bank concerned with changes in the output gap and inßation will implement a monetary policy that replicates the optimal, timeless perspective, precommitment policy. By stabilizing output gap changes, the central bank imparts inertia into output and inßation that is absent under pure discretion. It is shown that even a fully o...