This paper compares the relative efficiencies of pollution taxes, pollution standards, and the auctioning of pollution rights when the marginal damage function or marginal control cost are subject to uncertainty. In the first case, we find that all instruments yield the same expected social surplus. In the latter case, the choice of the optimal instrument depends, in general, on the relative el...

We consider a free boundary problem modeling growth and dissolution of a crystal in radial geometry with time-dependent data at the outer boundary. Well-posedness is shown rst for in H 1 but then, motivated by an opimal control problem, for in L 2 .

Optimal control is concerned with achieving a desired outcome, not by manipulating the path that can be taken within a specific system, but by manipulating the forces, or controls, that are fundamental to the system. It has no doubt been shown in the previous paper in this SSP series that optimal control problems are expressed using the functional, J, which serves as the performance index, in t...

For a system subject to breakdown at some random time two continuous surveillance plans are available, diiering in eeciency and cost. The controller is allowed to switch from one plan to the other at any time. We nd the optimal surveillance strategy in closed form and apply this result in some examples.

The paper deals with optimal control problems with only onecontrol variable and one state constraint, of arbitrary order. We considerthe case of finitely many boundary arcs and touch times. We obtain a no-gap theory of second-order conditions, allowing to characterize second-orderquadratic growth.

We demonstrate that an ideal observer model bounded by known limitations of the human visual system can explain empirical evidence concerning two effects of distractor ratios on visual search—effects that have previously been explained with salience-based models. The model makes optimal state estimations based on Bayesian estimates of stimuli localization and optimal control decisions of where ...

1 This paper surveys the recent literature concerning the structure of optimal taxes in dynamic economies in which agents are privately informed about skills and effort.