English

A greedy algorithm for habit formation under multiplicative utility

Portfolio Management 2023-05-09 v1

Abstract

We consider the problem of optimizing lifetime consumption under a habit formation model, both with and without an exogenous pension. Unlike much of the existing literature, we apply a power utility to the ratio of consumption to habit, rather than to their difference. The martingale/duality method becomes intractable in this setting, so we develop a greedy version of this method that is solvable using Monte Carlo simulation. We investigate the behaviour of the greedy solution, and explore what parameter values make the greedy solution a good approximation to the optimal one.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2305.04748,
  title  = {A greedy algorithm for habit formation under multiplicative utility},
  author = {Snezhana Kirusheva and Thomas S. Salisbury},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.04748},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T10:28:46.186Z