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In this book we open our insights in the Theory of the Firm, obtained through the application of Optimal Control Theory, to a public of scholars and advanced students in economics and applied mathematics. We walk on the micro economic side of the street that is bordered by Theory of the Firm on one side and by Optimal Control Theory on the other, keeping the reader away from all the dead end roads we turned down during our 10 years lasting research. We focus attention on the expressiveness and variety of insights that are obtained through studying only simple models of the firm. In this book mathematics is our tool, insight in optimal corporate policy our goal. Therefore most of the mathematics and calculations is put into appendices and in the main text all attention is on modelling corporate behaviour and on analysing the results of the calculations. So, the main text focusses on micro economics, even more specific: on Theory of the Firm. In that way this book is contrasted from such famous text books in applied Optimal Control with a much broader portfolio of applications, like Feichtinger & Hartl (1986) or with a more rigorous introduction into theory, like Seierstad & Sydsaeter (1987).

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The book is a contribution to the dynamic theory of the firm. It provides production, finance and investment decision rules, taking into account subjects like adjustment costs, financial constraints, costs of environmental pollution, technological progress, business cycles and uncertain demand.

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