We develop a methodology for studying ''large deviations type'' questions. Our approach does not require that the large deviations principle holds, and is thus applicable to a larg class of systems. We study a system of queues with exponential servers, which share an arrival stream. Arrivals are...

In this paper, we perform an in - depth investigation of relative merits of two adaptive learning algorithms with constant gain, Recursive Least Squares (RLS) and Stochastic Gradient (SG), using the Phelps model of monetary policy as a testing ground. The behavior of the two learning algorithms...

This paper deals with the search of optimal paths in a multi-stage stochastic decision network as a first application of the deterministic approximation approach proposed by Tadei et al. [48]. In the network, the involved utilities are stage-dependent and contain random oscillations with an...

Market mechanisms are increasingly being used as a tool for allocating somewhat scarce but unpriced rights and resources, and the European Emission Trading Scheme is an example. By means of dynamic optimization in the contest of firms covered by such environmental regulations, this paper...

We develop statistical methods to detect informed trading in options markets. We apply these methods to 31 companies from various sectors over 14 years analyzing approximately 9.6 million option prices. We find that option informed trading tends to cluster prior to certain events, takes place...

This appendix extends the empirical results in Chesney, Crameri, and Mancini (2011). Informed trading activities on put and call options are analyzed for 19 companies in the banking and insurance sectors from January 1996 to September 2009. Our empirical findings suggest that certain events such...

In this paper the stop-waiting strategy of Franz Bruss is set into a simple probabilistic framework and applied to the apple share prices from 1984 to 2013. Within the probabilistic framework a heuristic and a mathematical decision rule using the $\Psi$ function is developed. The results are in...

Replicating portfolios have recently emerged as an important tool in the life insurance industry, used for the valuation of companies' liabilities. This paper presents a replicating portfolio (RP) model for approximating life insurance liabilities as closely as possible. We minimize the L1 error...

We consider the solution of bound constrained optimization problems, where we assume that the evaluation of the objective function is costly, its derivatives are unavailable and the use of exact derivative-free algorithms may imply a too large computational burden. There is plenty of real...

Exact analytical solutions to the problem of computing a minimum semivariance portfolio cannot be obtained due to the endogeneity of the semicovariance matrix. However, when the number of assets is small, the weights for such a portfolio can be determined numerically. This paper presents the R...