Linear Methods are often used to compute approximate solutions to dynamic models, as these models often cannot be solved analytically. Linear methods are very popular, as they can easily be implemented. Also, they provide a useful starting point for understanding more elaborate numerical...

A version of the classical secretary problem is studied, in which one is interested in selecting one of the b best out of a group of n differently ranked persons who are presented one by one in a random order. It is assumed that b is bigger than or equal to 1 is a preassigned number. It is...

We investigate the optimal investment problem when the interest rate is stochastic and the investor must pay proportional transaction costs when buying and selling the risky assets. We first consider a portfolio of bonds and transaction costs.We then add a stock to the portfolio, and analyze the...

An enhanced option pricing framework that makes use of both continuous and discontinuous time paths based on a geometric Brownian motion and Poisson-driven jump processes respectively is performed in order to better fit with real-observed stock price paths while maintaining the analytical...

We introduce a new approach to model the market smile for inflation-linked derivatives by defining the Quadratic Gaussian Year-on-Year inflation model -- the QGY model. We directly define the model in terms of a year-on-year ratio of the inflation index on a discrete tenor structure, which,...

Measuring the performance of stock portfolios that include options is challenging due to options' nonlinearity in the underlying, their exposure to volatility risk, and their time decay. Our contribution to the literature is twofold: First, we provide a theoretically rigorous derivation of the...

Binary random variables often refer to such as customers that are present or not, roads that are open or not, machines that are operable or not. At the same time, stochastic programs often apply to situations where penalties are accumulated when demand is not met, travel times are too long, or...

We consider a tractable affine stochastic volatility model that generalizes the seminal Heston (1993) model by augmenting it with jumps in the instantaneous variance process. In this framework, we consider options written on the realized variance, and we examine the impact of the distribution of...

This paper develops tools for analyzing properties of stochastic objective functions which take the form (formula). The paper analyzes the relationship between properties of the primitive functions, such as utility functions u and probability distributions F, and properties of the stochastic...

We study a model for scheduling 'n' classes of stochastic jobs on a single machine, with the objective of minimizing the total expected holding cost (discounted or undiscounted). We allow general holding cost rates that are separable, nondecreasing and convex on the number of jobs in each class....