Science, Tech, Math › Social Sciences Principle of Optimality Share Flipboard Email Print DrAfter123 / Getty Images Social Sciences Economics U.S. Economy Employment Supply & Demand Psychology Sociology Archaeology Ergonomics By Mike Moffatt Mike Moffatt Professor of Business, Economics, and Public Policy Ph.D., Business Administration, Richard Ivey School of Business M.A., Economics, University of Rochester B.A., Economics and Political Science, University of Western Ontario Mike Moffatt, Ph.D., is an economist and professor. He teaches at the Richard Ivey School of Business and serves as a research fellow at the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on December 23, 2018 The principle of optimality is the basic principle of dynamic programming, which was developed by Richard Bellman: that an optimal path has the property that whatever the initial conditions and control variables (choices) over some initial period, the control (or decision variables) chosen over the remaining period must be optimal for the remaining problem, with the state resulting from the early decisions taken to be the initial condition. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Moffatt, Mike. "Principle of Optimality." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/principle-of-optimality-definition-1147078. Moffatt, Mike. (2020, August 27). Principle of Optimality. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/principle-of-optimality-definition-1147078 Moffatt, Mike. "Principle of Optimality." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/principle-of-optimality-definition-1147078 (accessed May 29, 2023). copy citation