Discounting, Values, and Decisions
提出一种通用方法，分析贴现率如何影响经济主体的决策和估值，涵盖随机现金流、随机贴现率、时间不一致性等特征，并应用于搜索、实验、破产、最优增长、投资和社会学习等模型。
How do discount rates affect agents' decisions and valuations? This paper provides a general method to analyze this question, allowing stochastic and managed cash flows, stochastic discount rates, and time inconsistency and including arbitrary learning and payoff or utility processes. We show that some of these features can lead to counterintuitive answers (e.g., "a more patient agent stops earlier"), but we also establish, under simple conditions, theorems yielding robust predictions concerning the impact of discount rates on control and stopping decisions and on valuations. We apply our theory to models of search, experimentation, bankruptcy, optimal growth, investment, and social learning.