This paper deals with a manufacturing system consisting of a single machine subject to random failures and repairs. The machine can produce two types of parts. When the production is switched from one part type to the other a random setup time is incurred at a constant cost rate. The objective...

We derive an algorithm in the spirit of Rogers and Davis & Burstein that leads to upper bounds for stochastic control problems. Our bounds complement lower biased estimates recently obtained in Guyon & Henry-Labordère. We evaluate our estimates in numerical examples motivated from mathematical...

We combine a dynamic programming approach (stochastic optimal control) with a multi-stage stochastic programming approach (MSP) in order to solve various problems in personal finance and pensions. Stochastic optimal control produces an optimal policy that is easy to understand and implement....

This paper studies the valuation of multiple American options in an incomplete market where asset prices follow Markov-modulated dynamics. The holder's optimal hedging and exercising strategies are determined from a utility maximization problem with optimal multiple stopping. We analyze the...

Generalising the idea of the classical EM algorithm that is widely used for computing maximum likelihood estimates, we propose an EM-Control (EM-C) algorithm for solving multi-period finite time horizon stochastic control problems. The new algorithm sequentially updates the control policies in...

This edited volume contains 16 research articles. It presents recent and pressing issues in stochastic processes, control theory, differential games, optimization, and their applications in finance, manufacturing, queueing networks, and climate control. One of the salient features is that the...

A key firm in the recent crisis has been AIG. Its CDS financial intermediation tried to function on too thin layer of capital – high leverage – owing to a misreading of the degree of risk embodied in ever more complex financial products and markets. I explain why the application of...

We introduce a numerical method to solve stochastic optimal control problems, which are linear in the control. We facilitate the idea of solving two-point boundary value problems with spline functions in order to solve the resulting dynamic programming equation. We then show how to effectively...

In this paper we describe three different algorithms, from which two (as far as we know) are new in the literature. We take both the size of the jump as the jump times as decision variables. The first (new) algorithm considers an Impulse Control problem as a (multipoint) Boundary Value Problem...