This paper presents a general class of dynamic stochastic optimization problems we refer to as Stochastic Depletion Problems. A number of challenging dynamic optimization problems of practical interest are stochastic depletion problems. Optimal solutions for such problems are difficult to...

We employ a stochastic dynamic programming approach to study decision making by an individual wishing to have an arranged marriage. First, we show that this individual never opts out of a voluntarily agreed upon marriage. Second, we demonstrate that our marrying individual uses a reservation...

The world meat market demands competitiveness and optimal livestock replacement decisions can help to achieve this goal. We introduce a novel discrete stochastic dynamic programming framework to support a manager's decision-making process of whether to sell or keep fattening animals in the beef...

We propose two modifications to the method of endogenous grid points that greatly decreases the computational time for life cycle models with many exogenous state variables. First, we use simulated stochastic grids on the exogenous state variables. Second, when we interpolate to find the...

We introduce an extension of Dual Dynamic Programming (DDP) to solve linear dynamic programming equations. We call this extension IDDP-LP which applies to situations where some or all primal and dual subproblems to be solved along the iterations of the method are solved with a bounded error...

We introduce the class of multistage stochastic optimization problems with a random number of stages. For such problems, we show how to write dynamic programming equations and detail the Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming algorithm to solve these equations. Finally, we consider a portfolio...