On the optimally controlled stochastic shallow lake

Abstract

We consider the stochastic control problem of the shallow lake and continue the work of G. T. Kossioris, Loulakis, and Souganidis (2019) in three directions. First, we generalise the characterisation of the value function as the viscosity solution of a well-posed problem to include more general recycling rates. Then, we prove approximate optimality under bounded controls and we establish quantitative estimates. Finally, we implement a convergent and stable numerical scheme for the computation of the value function to investigate properties of the optimally controlled stochastic shallow lake. This approach permits to derive tail asymptotics for the invariant distribution and to extend results of Grass, Kiseleva, and Wagener (2015) beyond the small noise limit.