Inventory rationing via drop-shipping in Internet retailing: A sensitivity analysis

In this paper, we study a threshold level inventory rationing policy that is of interest to e-tailers, operating in a business to consumer (B2C) environment and selling non-perishable, made-to-stock items such as books, CDs, consumer electronics, and body and bath products. A Monte Carlo simulation model is developed to examine this policy when the demand process is stochastic, lead-time is stochastic, and the e-tailer uses ‘drop-shipping’ as an order fulfillment option. The methodology presented, which includes computer simulation and a full factorial experimental design, permits understanding of the complexity of the decision-making environment and implications of different sources of uncertainty (e.g. demand variability and lead-time variability) on a profit-maximizing threshold level of inventory, a stock level below which low margin orders are drop-shipped directly from the e-tailer’s supplier rather than fulfilled from internal stock.     

The secretary problem with a call option

In addition to accepting or rejecting a candidate arriving at time r, we may consider purchasing an option at a cost cx to recall the candidate at time r + x, but this privilege may be invoked only once. For large sample size, using the best-choice criterion and deducting option costs, the optimal strategy and return are obtained.     

The Nash rationing problem

This paper studies the problem of allocating utility losses among n agents with cardinal non-comparable utility functions. This problem is referred to as the Nash rationing problem, as it can be regarded as the translation of the Nash bargaining problem to a rationing scenario. We show that there is no single-valued solution satisfying the obvious reformulation of Nash’s axioms, nor a multivalued solution satisfying a certain extension of these axioms. However, there is a multivalued solution that is characterised by an appropriate extension of the axioms. We thus call this mapping the Nash rationing solution. It associates with each rationing problem the set of points that maximises a weighted sum of utilities, in which weights are chosen so that all agents’ weighted losses are equal.We are grateful to Carmen Herrero, Paola Manzini, Karl Schlag, William Thomson, Fernando Vega-Redondo and two careful referees for useful comments. Financial support form the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, under project SEJ2004-08011ECON, and the Generalitat Valenciana, are gratefuly acknowledged.     

Inventory control with Markovian capacity and the option of order rejection

We consider a stochastic inventory control problem with Markovian capacity and the option of order rejection. We show its optimal policy to be the combination of a capacity-dependent modified base-stock production policy and a capacity-dependent critical-point order acceptance policy. When capacity is stochastically monotone, we show that the policy parameters change over the current capacity level in an intuitive way. All these results can be extended to the infinite-horizon case, with or without cost discounting. Our computational study substantiates the benefits from both exploiting the Markovian behavior of the capacity and rejecting orders when necessary.     

Closed-form solution to a real option problem with regime switching

I investigate the optimal investment timing model in which investment is feasible in only one of the two regimes, which shift at Poisson jump times. I derive the option value and investment threshold in closed forms. I also prove that some solutions in previous models are obtained as the limits of the solution. The closed-form solution can be useful as a new framework to study real option problems with the illiquidity of option exercise opportunities.     

AN OPTION PRICING PROBLEM WITH THEUNDERLYING STOCK PAY1NG DIVIDENDS~

In this paper, a pricing problem of European call options is considered, wbete the underlying stock generates dividends d, at some fixed future dates T, before the expiration date T .without the inappropriate assumption made in that the dlvkdeMs being payed continously.The arbitrage free pricing of the option is determined via a series of partial differential equations.which is derived at the view point of backward s‘tochasric differential ertuation (BBDE). It isshowed how the dividends affect the fair price of the call options. Some simulating results are alsogiven to illust rate the respective in fluence of parameters a.T.r,K.di and F1 on the option pricing.     

On the asymptotic free boundary for the American put option problem

In practical work with American put options, it is important to be able to know when to exercise the option, and when not to do so. In computer simulation based on the standard theory of geometric Brownian motion for simulating stock price movements, this problem is fairly easy to handle for options with a short lifespan, by analyzing binomial trees. It is considerably more challenging to make the decision for American put options with long lifespan. In order to provide a satisfactory analysis, we look at the corresponding free boundary problem, and show that the free boundary—which is the curve that separates the two decisions, to exercise or not to—has an asymptotic expansion, where the coefficient of the main term is expressed as an integral in terms of the free boundary. This raises the perspective that one could use numerical simulation to approximate the integral and thus get an effective way to make correct decisions for long life options.     

On a free boundary problem for an American put option under the CEV process

We consider an American put option under the CEV process. This corresponds to a free boundary problem for a PDE. We show that this free boundary satisfies a nonlinear integral equation, and analyze it in the limit of small $\rho =2r/{\sigma }^2$, where $r$ is the interest rate and $\sigma$ is the volatility. We use perturbation methods to find that the free boundary behaves differently for five ranges of time to expiry.     

Inventory decisions for a finite horizon problem with product substitution options and time varying demand

The inventory control of substitutable products has been recognized as a problem worthy of study in the operations management literature. Product substitution provides flexibility in supply chain management and enhances response time in production control. This paper proposes a finite horizon inventory control problem for two substitutable products, which are ordered jointly in each replenishment epoch. Demand for the products are assumed to be time–varying. In case of a stock–out for one of the products, its demand is satisfied by using the stock of the other product. The optimal ordering schedule, for both products, that minimizes the total cost over a finite planning horizon is derived. Numerical examples along with sensitivity analyses are also presented.     

Two-machine flow shop scheduling problem with an outsourcing option

We consider a two-machine flow shop problem in which each job is processed through an in-house system or outsourced to a subcontractor. A schedule is established for the in-house jobs, and performance is measured by the makespan. Jobs processed by subcontractors require paying an outsourcing cost. The objective is to minimize the sum of the makespan and total outsourcing costs. We show that the problem is NP-hard in the ordinary sense. We consider a special case in which each job has a processing requirement, and each machine a characteristic value. In this case, the time a job occupies a machine is equal to the job’s processing requirement plus a setup time equal to the characteristic value of that machine. We introduce some optimality conditions and present a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the special case.     

The Price of a lookback option as the solution of a boundary-value problem for the heat equation

A lookback option is priced by solving the third boundary-value problem for the heat equation. The application of the Laplace transform makes it possible to represent the option price as a certain integral expressible in terms of the distribution of the first arrival time of a Brownian motion at a given level. Translated from Prikladnaya Matematika i Informatika, No. 28, pp. 66 – 72, 2008.     

Inventory control problem with freight cost and stochastic demand

This paper generalizes the standard newsboy model to the case including freight cost, in which the capacity of one container is the limit and the freight cost is proportional to the number of the containers used. We show that the optimal ordering quantity is either the newsboy solution or some multiple of the container’s capacity. We also propose an algorithm to compute the optimal policy. Furthermore, we generalize these results to the case in which the inventory and the price are determined jointly with emergency purchase.     

On local regularization for an inverse problem of option pricing

We explore the theoretical and numerical application of local regularization methods to an ill-posed inverse problem arising from financial option pricing. In addition, we provide an algorithm and show results through numerical examples.     

Obstacle problem for nonlinear integro-differential equations arising in option pricing

Abstract  We study the obstacle problem for a class of nonlinear integro-partial differential equations of second order, possibly degenerate, which includes the equation modeling American options in a jump-diffusion market with large investor. The viscosity solutions setting reveals appropriate, because of a monotonicity property with respect to the integral term. The same property allows to approximate the problem by penalization and to obtain the existence and uniqueness of solutions via a comparison principle. We also give uniform estimates of the solutions of the penalized problems which allow to prove further regularity. Keywords: Integro-differential equations, Obstacle problem, Viscosity solutions, American options Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 45K05, 35K85, 49L25, 91B24     

A semi-smooth Newton method for an inverse problem in option pricing

We present an optimal control approach using a Lagrangian framework to identify local volatility functions from given option prices. We employ a globalized sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm and implement a line search strategy. The linear-quadratic optimal control problems in each iteration are solved by a primal-dual active set strategy which leads to a semi-smooth Newton method. We present first- and second-order analysis as well as numerical results. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Aggregator operators for dynamic rationing

We study dynamic rationing problems. In each period, a fixed group of agents hold claims over an insufficient endowment. The solution to each of these periods’ problems might be influenced by the solutions at previous periods. We single out a natural family of aggregator operators, which extend static rules (solving static rationing problems) to construct rules to solve dynamic rationing problems.     

A fixed point method for the linear complementarity problem arising from american option pricing

For American option pricing, the Black-Scholes-Merton model can be discretized as a linear complementarity problem (LCP) by using some finite difference schemes. It is well known that the Projected Successive Over Relaxation (PSOR) has been widely applied to solve the resulted LCP. In this paper, we propose a fixed point iterative method to solve this type of LCPs, where the splitting technique of the matrix is used. We show that the proposed method is globally convergent under mild assumptions. The preliminary numerical results are reported, which demonstrate that the proposed method is more accurate than the PSOR for the problems we tested.     

The free boundary problem of American butterfly option

This article aims to characterize behaviors of the free boundary arising from American butterfly option pricing. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution and free boundary. And then, we classify the shape of the free boundary under different conditions. The main contribution of this paper is to prove that the free boundary of evolutionary problem converges to the free boundary of stationary problem. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi-commodity rationing problems with maxmin payoffs

We address a multi-dimensional extension of standard rationing problems in which several commodities have to be shared among a set of agents who exhibit maxmin preferences on the results they obtain. In this context we investigate efficiency and introduce a property of stability which is supported on a transferable utility game. We also propose a procedure to construct rules for obtaining stable allocations for the special case where all commodities have the same weight.