Bifurcation in optimal retirement

Bushra Shehnam Ashraf, Thomas S. Salisbury

2025-06-02

Abstract

We study optimal consumption and retirement using a Cobb-Douglas utility and a simple model in which an interesting bifurcation arises. With high wealth, individuals plan to retire. With low wealth they plan to never retire. At a critical level of initial wealth they may choose to defer this decision, leading to a continuum of wealth trajectories with identical utilities.