On optimal control of capital injections by reinsurance and investments

This is a review paper on the optimal control of capital injections by reinsurance and investments. We will focus on the two most popular models for the surplus process of an insurer: a classical risk model and its diffusion approximation. Both models are modified by the possibility of reinsurance and investments into a risky or riskless asset. The insurer is allowed to change the amount to be invested and the retention level of the reinsurance continuously, i.e. we consider dynamic reinsurance and investment strategies. In addition, the cedent has to inject capital in order to keep the surplus positive. As a risk measure we choose the value of the expected discounted capital injections. The problem is to minimize the expected discounted capital injections over all admissible reinsurance and investments strategies and to find the optimal strategy if it exists. A detailed discussion of the topic can be found in my doctoral thesis “Optimal Control of Capital Injections by Reinsurance and Investments” (Eisenberg in Optimal control of capital injections by reinsurance and investments. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln, 2010), which is the Gauss prize winning paper of 2009.     

Optimal Dividend and Capital Injection Strategies with Transaction Costs and Exponentially Distributed Observation Time

In this paper, we consider the optimal joint dividend and capital injection strategy with proportional and fixed costs. It supposes that capitals can be injected whenever they are profitable, but dividends can only be paid at the arrival times of a Poisson process with intensity . Our objective is to determine an optimal strategy of maximizing the expected cumulative discounted dividends minus the expected discounted costs of capital injections before bankruptcy. By solving some impulse problems, we get the closed-form solutions depending on the parameters of model. Some known results in Lokka and Zervos (2008) can be viewed as limiting cases when .     

复合Poisson 模型带比例与固定交易费用的最优分红与注资

研究了复合Poisson 模型带比例与固定费用的最优分红与注资问题. 每次分红与注资时, 存在比例及固定的交易费用. 通过控制分红与注资的时刻以及分红及注资量,实现破产前分红减注资的折现期望的最大化. 由于存在固定交易费用, 问题为一个脉冲控制问题. 根据问题的参数不同, 问题的解可分为两大类. 一类解为只进行最优分红不需要注资, 而另一类情况需要注资. 需要注资时, 最优注资策略由最优注资上界以及最优注资下界描述. 当赤字小于最优注资下界的绝对值时, 进行注资. 最后, 在理赔为指数分布时明确地给出了两类共七种最优策略以及值函数的形式. 从而彻底地解决了该问题.     

带注资的二维复合泊松模型的最优分红

研究建立两类理赔关系的二维复合泊松模型的最优分红与注资问题,目标为最大化分红减注资的折现. 该问题由随机控制问题刻画, 通过解相应的哈密尔顿-雅克比-贝尔曼(HJB)方程,得到了最优分红策略,并在指数理赔时明确地解决该问题.     

Optimal periodic dividend and capital injection problem for spectrally positive Lévy processes

In this paper, we investigate an optimal periodic dividend and capital injection problem for spectrally positive Lévy processes. We assume that the periodic dividend strategy has exponential inter-dividend-decision times and continuous monitoring of solvency. Both proportional and fixed transaction costs from capital injection are considered. The objective is to maximize the total value of the expected discounted dividends and the penalized discounted capital injections until the time of ruin. By the fluctuation theory of Lévy processes in Albrecher et al. (2016), the optimal periodic dividend and capital injection strategies are derived. We also find that the optimal return function can be expressed in terms of the scale functions of Lévy processes. Finally, numerical examples are studied to illustrate our results.     

Optimal dividend and dynamic reinsurance strategies with capital injections and proportional costs

We consider an optimization problem of an insurance company in the diffusion setting, which controls the dividends payout as well as the capital injections. To maximize the cumulative expected discounted dividends minus the penalized discounted capital injections until the ruin time, there is a possibility of (cheap or non-cheap) proportional reinsurance. We solve the control problems by constructing two categories of suboptimal models, one without capital injections and one with no bankruptcy by capital injection. Then we derive the explicit solutions for the value function and totally characterize the optimal strategies. Particularly, for cheap reinsurance, they are the same as those in the model of no bankruptcy.     

Optimal dividend and capital injection problem with a random time horizon and a ruin penalty in the dual model

In the dual risk model, we consider the optimal dividend and capital injection problem, which involves a random time horizon and a ruin penalty. Both fixed and proportional costs from the transactions of capital injection are considered. The objective is to maximize the total value of the expected discounted dividends, and the penalized discounted both capital injections and ruin penalty during the horizon, which is described by the minimum of the time of ruin and an exponential random variable. The explicit solutions for optimal strategy and value function are obtained, when the income jumps follow a hyper-exponential distribution.Besides, some numerical examples are presented to illustrate our results.     

A unified approach to portfolio optimization with linear transaction costs

In this paper we study the continuous time optimal portfolio selection problem for an investor with a finite horizon who maximizes expected utility of terminal wealth and faces transaction costs in the capital market. It is well known that, depending on a particular structure of transaction costs, such a problem is formulated and solved within either stochastic singular control or stochastic impulse control framework. In this paper we propose a unified framework, which generalizes the contemporary approaches and is capable to deal with any problem where transaction costs are a linear/piecewise-linear function of the volume of trade. We also discuss some methods for solving numerically the problem within our unified framework.     

Explicit characterization of the super-replication strategy in financial markets with partial transaction costs

We consider a continuous time multivariate financial market with proportional transaction costs and study the problem of finding the minimal initial capital needed to hedge, without risk, European-type contingent claims. The model is similar to the one considered in Bouchard and Touzi [B. Bouchard, N. Touzi, Explicit solution of the multivariate super-replication problem under transaction costs, The Annals of Applied Probability 10 (3) (2000) 685–708] except that some of the assets can be exchanged freely, i.e. without paying transaction costs. In this context, we generalize the result of the above paper and prove that the super-replication price is given by the cost of the cheapest hedging strategy in which the number of non-freely exchangeable assets is kept constant over time. Our proof relies on the introduction of a new auxiliary control problem whose value function can be interpreted as the super-hedging price in a model with unbounded stochastic volatility (in the directions where transaction costs are non-zero). In particular, it confirms the usual intuition that transaction costs play a similar role to stochastic volatility.     

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In the classical Cram\'{e}r-Lundberg model in risk theory the problem of finding the optimal dividend strategy and optimal dividend return function is a widely discussed topic. In the present paper, we discuss the problem of maximizing the expected discounted net dividend payments minus the expected discounted costs of injecting new capital, in the Cram\'{e}r-Lundberg model with proportional taxes and fixed transaction costs imposed each time the dividend is paid out and with both fixed and proportional transaction costs incurred each time the capital injection is made. Negative surplus or ruin is not allowed. By solving the corresponding quasi-variational inequality, we obtain the analytical solution of the optimal return function and the optimal joint dividend and capital injection strategy when claims are exponentially distributed.     

A developed slope order index (SOI) for bottlenecks in projects and production lines

This paper finds a sequence of m jobs on one processor with the minimum total cost as a solution to the sequencing problem where the raw materials are either expensive to buy or carry. There have been numerous studies considering m jobs on one processor which consider various cost factors such as the total penalty cost. One of the important, but less investigated cost factors, in the previous studies, is the inventory carrying and its relevant capital costs. The inventory costs such as the holding cost and capital cost must be considered in proposing a solution to the sequencing problem. In this paper, by taking those costs into account to address the sequencing problem, a developed slope order index is computed to enable decision makers to a sufficient cost saving sequence of m jobs on one processor. This paper contributes the current knowledge by proposing a new sequencing solution in which some previously less observed costs are considered. The result of this paper can also be employed in scheduling of m jobs where there is a bottleneck and the inventories are expensive or their holding costs are considerable.     

Optimal Dividend Payments in a Dual Risk Model with both Fixed and Proportional Costs

In this paper, we study the optimal dividend problem in a dual risk model, which might be appropriate for companies that have fixed expenses and occasional profits. Assuming that dividend payments are subject to both proportional and fixed transaction costs, our object is to maximize the expected present value of dividend payments until ruin, which is defined as the first time the company's surplus becomes negative. This optimization problem is formulated as a stochastic impulse control problem. By solving the corresponding quasi-variational inequality (QVI), we obtain the analytical solutions of the value function and its corresponding optimal dividend strategy when jump sizes are exponentially distributed.     

Ruin probabilities under capital constraints

In this paper, we generalise the classic compound Poisson risk model, by the introduction of ordered capital levels, to model the solvency of an insurance firm. A breach of the higher capital level, the magnitude of which does not cause further breaches of either the lower level or the so-called intermediate confidence level (of the shareholders), requires a capital injection to restore the surplus to a solvent position. On the other hand, if the confidence level is breached capital injections are no longer a viable method of recapitalisation. Instead, the company can borrow money from a third party, subject to a constant interest rate, which is paid back until the surplus returns to the confidence level and subsequently can be restored to a fully solvent position by a capital injection. If at any point the surplus breaches the lower capital level, the company is considered ‘insolvent’ and is forced to cease trading. For the aforementioned risk model, we derive an explicit expression for the ‘probability of insolvency’ in terms of the ruin quantities of the classical risk model. Under the assumption of exponentially distributed claim sizes, we show that the probability of insolvency is in fact directly proportional to the classical ruin function. It is shown that this result also holds for the asymptotic behaviour of the insolvency probability, with a general claim size distribution. Explicit expressions are also derived for the moment generating function of the accumulated capital injections up to the time of insolvency and finally, in order to better capture the reality, dividend payments to the companies shareholders are considered, along with the capital constraint levels, and explicit expressions for the probability of insolvency, under this modification, are obtained.     

Omega diffusion risk model with surplus-dependent tax and capital injections

In this paper, we propose and study an Omega risk model with a constant bankruptcy function, surplus-dependent tax payments and capital injections in a time-homogeneous diffusion setting. The surplus value process is both refracted (paying tax) at its running maximum and reflected (injecting capital) at a lower constant boundary. The new model incorporates practical features from the Omega risk model (Albrecher et al., 2011), the risk model with tax (Albrecher and Hipp, 2007), and the risk model with capital injections (Albrecher and Ivanovs, 2014). The study of this new risk model is closely related to the Azéma–Yor process, which is a process refracted by its running maximum. We explicitly characterize the Laplace transform of the occupation time of an Azéma–Yor process below a constant level until the first passage time of another Azéma–Yor process or until an independent exponential time. We also consider the case when the process has a lower reflecting boundary. This result unifies and extends recent results of Li and Zhou (2013) and Zhang (2015). We explicitly characterize the Laplace transform of the time of bankruptcy in the Omega risk model with tax and capital injections up to eigen-functions, and determine the expected present value of tax payments until default. We also discuss a further extension to occupation functionals through stochastic time-change, which handles the case of a non-constant bankruptcy function. Finally we present examples using a Brownian motion with drift, and discuss the pricing of quantile options written on the Azéma–Yor process.     

Optimal Consumption and Portfolio with Ambiguity to Markovian Switching

This paper considers the problem of maximizing expected utility from consumption and terminal wealth under model uncertainty for a general semimartingale market, where the agent with an initial capital and a random endowment can invest. To find a solution to the investment problem we use the martingale method. We first prove that under appropriate assumptions a unique solution to the investment problem exists. Then we deduce that the value functions of primal problem and dual problem are convex conjugate functions. Furthermore we consider a diffusion-jump-model where the coefficients depend on the state of a Markov chain and the investor is ambiguity to the intensity of the underlying Poisson process. Finally, for an agent with the logarithmic utility function, we use the stochastic control method to derive the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellmann (HJB) equation. And the solution to this HJB equation can be determined numerically. We also show how thereby the optimal investment strategy can be computed.     

Risk adjusted discounted cash flows in capacity expansion models

This paper addresses a problem that is typical of multi-period capacity expansion equilibrium models: plants or sectors have different risk exposures that may warrant different costs of capital. The paper examines modifications of a capacity expansion model interpreted in equilibrium terms to account for asset-specific costs of capital.     

Optimal dividend and capital injection strategy with a penalty payment at ruin: Restricted dividend payments

In this paper, we study the optimal dividend and capital injection problem with the penalty payment at ruin. The dividend strategy is assumed to be restricted to a small class of absolutely continuous strategies with bounded dividend density. By considering the surplus process killed at the time of ruin, we transform the problem to a combined stochastic and impulse control one up to ruin with a free boundary at zero. We illustrate the theoretical verifications for different types of capital injection strategies comparing to the conventional results given in the literature, where the capital injections are made before the time of ruin. Under the assumption of restricted dividend density, the value function is proved as the unique increasing, bounded, Lipschitz continuous and upper semi-continuous at zero viscosity solution to the corresponding quasi-variational Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation. The uniqueness of such class of viscosity solutions is shown by considering its boundary condition at infinity. The optimality of a specific band-type strategy is proved for the case when the premium rate is (i) greater than or (ii) less than the ceiling dividend rate respectively. Some numerical examples are presented under the exponential and gamma claim size assumptions.     

Minimizing the ruin probability allowing investments in two assets: a two-dimensional problem

We consider in this paper that the reserve of an insurance company follows the classical model, in which the aggregate claim amount follows a compound Poisson process. Our goal is to minimize the ruin probability of the company assuming that the management can invest dynamically part of the reserve in an asset that has a positive fixed return. However, due to transaction costs, the sale price of the asset at the time when the company needs cash to cover claims is lower than the original price. This is a singular two-dimensional stochastic control problem which cannot be reduced to a one-dimensional problem. The associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation is a variational inequality involving a first order integro-differential operator and a gradient constraint. We characterize the optimal value function as the unique viscosity solution of the associated HJB equation. For exponential claim distributions, we show that the optimal value function is induced by a two-region stationary strategy (“action” and “inaction” regions) and we find an implicit formula for the free boundary between these two regions. We also study the optimal strategy for small and large initial capital and show some numerical examples.     

A framework for evaluating remote diagnostics investment decisions for semiconductor equipment suppliers

With advances in information technology, service activities for expensive equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing can be performed from a remote location. This capability is called remote diagnostics (RD). Currently, there are intense development efforts in the semiconductor industry for implementing RD in wafer fabrication facilities to reduce maintenance and capital costs and improve productivity. In this paper, we develop a queueing-location model to analyze the capacity and location problem of after sales service providers, considering the effects of RD technology. Our model optimizes the location, capacity and the type of service centers while taking congestion effects into consideration. We solve this model using a simulation optimization approach in which we use a genetic algorithm to search the solution space. We demonstrate how our methodology can be used in strategic investment planning regarding the adoption of RD technology and service center siting through a realistic case study.     

Note: An application of the EOQ model with nonlinear holding cost to inventory management of perishables

In this note, we consider a variation of the economic order quantity (EOQ) model where cumulative holding cost is a nonlinear function of time. This problem has been studied by Weiss [Weiss, H., 1982. Economic order quantity models with nonlinear holding costs. European Journal of Operational Research 9, 56–60], and we here show how it is an approximation of the optimal order quantity for perishable goods, such as milk, and produce, sold in small to medium size grocery stores where there are delivery surcharges due to infrequent ordering, and managers frequently utilize markdowns to stabilize demand as the product’s expiration date nears. We show how the holding cost curve parameters can be estimated via a regression approach from the product’s usual holding cost (storage plus capital costs), lifetime, and markdown policy. We show in a numerical study that the model provides significant improvement in cost vis-à-vis the classic EOQ model, with a median improvement of 40%. This improvement is more significant for higher daily demand rate, lower holding cost, shorter lifetime, and a markdown policy with steeper discounts.