Chapter 51 STRUCTURAL ESTIMATION OF MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES* JOHN RUST University of Wisconsin Contents 1. Introduction 2. Solving MDP’s via dynamic programming: A brief review 2.1. Finite-horizon dynamic programming and the optimality of Markovian decision rules 2.2. Infinite-horizon dynamic programming and Bellman’s equation 2.3. Bellman’s equation, contraction mappings and optimality 2.4. A