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 book is highly multi-disciplinary. The book is dedicated to Professor Suresh Sethi on the occasion of his 60th birthday, in view of his distinguished career.
An introduction to general theories of stochastic processes and modern martingale theory. The volume focuses on consistency, stability and contractivity under geometric invariance in numerical analysis, and discusses problems related to implementation, simulation, variable step size algorithms, and random number generation.
Eugene A. Feinberg Adam Shwartz This volume deals with the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) and their applications. Each chapter was written by a leading expert in the re spective area. The papers cover major research areas and methodologies, and discuss open questions and future research directions. The papers can be read independently, with the basic notation and concepts ofSection 1.2. Most chap ters should be accessible by graduate or advanced undergraduate students in fields of operations research, electrical engineering, and computer science. 1.1 AN OVERVIEW OF MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES The theory of Markov Decision Processes-also known under several other names including sequential stochastic optimization, discrete-time stochastic control, and stochastic dynamic programming-studiessequential optimization ofdiscrete time stochastic systems. The basic object is a discrete-time stochas tic system whose transition mechanism can be controlled over time. Each control policy defines the stochastic process and values of objective functions associated with this process. The goal is to select a "good" control policy. In real life, decisions that humans and computers make on all levels usually have two types ofimpacts: (i) they cost orsavetime, money, or other resources, or they bring revenues, as well as (ii) they have an impact on the future, by influencing the dynamics. In many situations, decisions with the largest immediate profit may not be good in view offuture events. MDPs model this paradigm and provide results on the structure and existence of good policies and on methods for their calculation.
This book covers several bases at once. It is useful as a textbook for a second course in experimental optimization techniques for industrial production processes. In addition, it is a superb reference volume for use by professors and graduate students in Industrial Engineering and Statistics departments. It will also be of huge interest to applied statisticians, process engineers, and quality engineers working in the electronics and biotech manufacturing industries. In all, it provides an in-depth presentation of the statistical issues that arise in optimization problems, including confidence regions on the optimal settings of a process, stopping rules in experimental optimization, and more.
Building upon the previous editions, this textbook is a first course in stochastic processes taken by undergraduate and graduate students (MS and PhD students from math, statistics, economics, computer science, engineering, and finance departments) who have had a course in probability theory. It covers Markov chains in discrete and continuous time, Poisson processes, renewal processes, martingales, and option pricing. One can only learn a subject by seeing it in action, so there are a large number of examples and more than 300 carefully chosen exercises to deepen the reader’s understanding. Drawing from teaching experience and student feedback, there are many new examples and problems with solutions that use TI-83 to eliminate the tedious details of solving linear equations by hand, and the collection of exercises is much improved, with many more biological examples. Originally included in previous editions, material too advanced for this first course in stochastic processes has been eliminated while treatment of other topics useful for applications has been expanded. In addition, the ordering of topics has been improved; for example, the difficult subject of martingales is delayed until its usefulness can be applied in the treatment of mathematical finance.
The Handbook of Simulation Optimization presents an overview of the state of the art of simulation optimization, providing a survey of the most well-established approaches for optimizing stochastic simulation models and a sampling of recent research advances in theory and methodology. Leading contributors cover such topics as discrete optimization via simulation, ranking and selection, efficient simulation budget allocation, random search methods, response surface methodology, stochastic gradient estimation, stochastic approximation, sample average approximation, stochastic constraints, variance reduction techniques, model-based stochastic search methods and Markov decision processes. This single volume should serve as a reference for those already in the field and as a means for those new to the field for understanding and applying the main approaches. The intended audience includes researchers, practitioners and graduate students in the business/engineering fields of operations research, management science, operations management and stochastic control, as well as in economics/finance and computer science.
Upper-level undergraduate text introduces aspects of optimal control theory: dynamic programming, Pontryagin's minimum principle, and numerical techniques for trajectory optimization. Numerous figures, tables. Solution guide available upon request. 1970 edition.
First published in 2004, this is a rigorous but user-friendly book on the application of stochastic control theory to economics. A distinctive feature of the book is that mathematical concepts are introduced in a language and terminology familiar to graduate students of economics. The standard topics of many mathematics, economics and finance books are illustrated with real examples documented in the economic literature. Moreover, the book emphasises the dos and don'ts of stochastic calculus, cautioning the reader that certain results and intuitions cherished by many economists do not extend to stochastic models. A special chapter (Chapter 5) is devoted to exploring various methods of finding a closed-form representation of the value function of a stochastic control problem, which is essential for ascertaining the optimal policy functions. The book also includes many practice exercises for the reader. Notes and suggested readings are provided at the end of each chapter for more references and possible extensions.
This third edition of the classic textbook in Optimization has been fully revised and updated. It comprehensively covers modern theoretical insights in this crucial computing area, and will be required reading for analysts and operations researchers in a variety of fields. The book connects the purely analytical character of an optimization problem, and the behavior of algorithms used to solve it. Now, the third edition has been completely updated with recent Optimization Methods. The book also has a new co-author, Yinyu Ye of California’s Stanford University, who has written lots of extra material including some on Interior Point Methods.
Optimization problems involving stochastic models occur in almost all areas of science and engineering, such as telecommunications, medicine, and finance. Their existence compels a need for rigorous ways of formulating, analyzing, and solving such problems. This book focuses on optimization problems involving uncertain parameters and covers the theoretical foundations and recent advances in areas where stochastic models are available. Readers will find coverage of the basic concepts of modeling these problems, including recourse actions and the nonanticipativity principle. The book also includes the theory of two-stage and multistage stochastic programming problems; the current state of the theory on chance (probabilistic) constraints, including the structure of the problems, optimality theory, and duality; and statistical inference in and risk-averse approaches to stochastic programming.
