Optimal Consumption in a Growth Model with the CES Production Function

Abstract

This article studies the optimization problem of maximizing the expected discounted present value of lifetime utility of consumption in the framework of one-sector neoclassical growth model with the Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function. We establish the existence of a classical solution of the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation associated with this problem by the technique of viscosity solutions under the strict concavity of the utility function, and hence derive an optimal consumption from the optimality conditions in the HJB equation.

Keywords:

• Dynamic economic models
• Growth models
• Stochastic ordinary differential equations
• Viscosity solutions

Mathematics Subject Classification:

• 60H10
• 91B62
• 49L25