Week 8 Homework Feedback: Alice Ciavatta

Assignment: Dynamic Programming & Value Function Iteration with Population Growth
Week: 8
Date: Week 8 Assessment

✅ Overall Assessment

Result: ✅ More than 50% Correct

Excellent submission. The code implements the ((1+n)) constraint correctly, stores value-function snapshots, exports high-quality figures, and includes clear parameter experiments for both (\beta) and (\alpha) with accompanying discussion. The only missing checklist item is a set of transition-path comparisons for the alternative calibrations—only the baseline (n=0.01) path is simulated. 14/15 tasks fully correct (~93%).

Task Highlights

  1. Consumption matrix with (1+n) — ✅ (line 26)
  2. Value Function Iteration — ✅ (lines 39-58)
  3. Convergence history storage — ✅ (Vstore, plotted in Figure 1)
  4. Policy function extraction — ✅ (line 67)
  5. Policy plot with 45° line — ✅ (lines 86-93)
  6. Capital path simulation — ✅ (lines 98-124)
  7. Consumption path simulation — ✅ (lines 111-117)
  8. Capital path plot — ✅ (lines 118-124)
  9. Consumption path plot — ✅ (lines 118-124)
  10. Parameter experiments — ✅ (Sections “Experiment 1/2”)
  11. Policy functions for different calibrations — ✅ (figures for (\beta) and (\alpha))
  12. Capital paths for different calibrations — ❌ (only baseline transition plotted)
  13. Value function convergence plot — ✅ (value_function_convergence.png)
  14. Figure saving — ✅ (all charts saved to Figures/)
  15. Interpretation comments — ✅ (throughout comments + Section 10)

Suggestions

  1. Add comparative transition paths: after each parameter experiment, reuse the corresponding policy to simulate (k_t) (and optionally (c_t)) so the reader can see how dynamics differ under alternative (\beta) / (\alpha).
  2. Minor: the legend in the (\beta) experiment currently labels (\beta = 0.99); update to match the actual set if needed.

Summary

Great structure, clean visuals, and thoughtful economics. Add the transition-path comparisons for the alternative calibrations and you’ll tick every box on the rubric. Nice job!