The method of variational inequalities is a useful theoretical tool in stochastic control, but there are few problems in which this method leads to an explicit solution. We present such a problem drawn from portfolio management. An agent can distribute his wealth between two investments, one...

An asymptotic analysis of a hierarchical manufacturing system with machines subject to breakdown and repair is presented. The machine fluctuations are much faster than the accumulation and discounting of costs, and this gives rise to a limiting problem in which the stochastic machine...