Important features of certain economic models may be revealed by studying positive eigenfunctions of appropriately chosen linear operators. Examples include long-run risk–return relationships in dynamic asset pricing models and components of marginal utility in external habit formation models. This paper provides identification conditions for positive eigenfunctions in nonparametric models. Identification is achieved if the operator satisfies two mild positivity conditions and a power compactness condition. Both existence and identification are achieved under a further nondegeneracy condition. The general results are applied to obtain new identification conditions for external habit formation models and for positive eigenfunctions of pricing operators in dynamic asset pricing models.
Authors
Research Associate University College London, Cemmap
Timothy is a Research Associate at IFS and a Professor of Economics at University College London.
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1017/S0266466614000668
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Issue
- Volume 31, Issue 6, December 2015
Suggested citation
Christensen, T. (2015). 'Nonparametric identification of positive eigenfunctions' 31(6/2015)
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