This book offers a unified, comprehensive, and up-to-date treatment of analytical and numerical tools for solving dynamic economic problems. The focus is on introducing recursive methods--an important part of every economist's set of tools--and readers will learn to apply recursive methods to a variety of dynamic economic problems. The book is notable for its combination of theoretical foundations and numerical methods. Each topic is first described in theoretical terms, with explicit definitions and rigorous proofs; numerical methods and computer codes to implement these methods follow. Drawing on the latest research, the book covers such cutting-edge topics as asset price bubbles, recursive utility, robust control, policy analysis in dynamic New Keynesian models with the zero lower bound on interest rates, and Bayesian estimation of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models.

This second edition has been substantially updated. Responding to renewed interest in modeling with multiple equilibria, it incorporates new material on this topic throughout. It offers an entirely new chapter on deterministic nonlinear systems, and provides new material on such topics as linear planar systems, chaos, bifurcations, indeterminacy and sunspot solutions, pruning nonlinear solutions, the bandit problem, rational inattention models, bequests, self-fulfilling prophecies, the cyclical behavior of unemployment and vacancies, and the long-run risk model. The exposition of each chapter has been revised and improved, and many new figures, Matlab codes, and exercises have been added. A student solutions manual can be purchased separately.