| Article ID: | iaor20021412 |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Volume: | 101 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Start Page Number: | 383 |
| End Page Number: | 390 |
| Publication Date: | Jan 2001 |
| Journal: | Annals of Operations Research |
| Authors: | Ben-Israel Adi, Zhao Fuan |
The envelope theorem is a statement about derivatives along an optimal trajectory. In dynamic programming the envelope theorem can be used to characterize and compute the optimal value function from its derivatives. We illustrate this here for the linear–quadratic control problem, the resource allocation problem, and the inverse problem of dynamic programming.