Dynamic pricing of multiple home delivery options

Online grocers accept delivery bookings and have to deliver groceries to consumers’ residences. Grocery stores operate on very thin margins. Therefore, a critical question that an online grocery store needs to address is the cost of home delivery operations. In this paper, we develop a Markov decision process-based pricing model that recognizes the need to balance utilization of delivery capacity by the grocer and the need to have the goods delivered at the most convenient time for the customer. The model dynamically adjusts delivery prices as customers arrive and make choices. The optimal prices have the following properties. First, the optimal prices are such that the online grocer gains the same expected payoff in the remaining booking horizon, regardless of the delivery option independently chosen by a consumer. Second, with unit order sizes, delivery prices can increase due to dynamic substitution effects as there is less time left in the booking horizon.     

On proper secrets, (<Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>)-bases and linear codes

This paper contains three parts where each part triggered and motivated the subsequent one. In the first part (Proper Secrets) we study the Shamir’s “k-out-of-n” threshold secret sharing scheme. In that scheme, the dealer generates a random polynomial of degree k−1 whose free coefficient is the secret and the private shares are point values of that polynomial. We show that the secret may, equivalently, be chosen as any other point value of the polynomial (including the point at infinity), but, on the other hand, setting the secret to be any other linear combination of the polynomial coefficients may result in an imperfect scheme. In the second part ((t, k)-bases) we define, for every pair of integers t and k such that 1 ≤ t ≤ k−1, the concepts of (t, k)-spanning sets, (t, k)-independent sets and (t, k)-bases as generalizations of the usual concepts of spanning sets, independent sets and bases in a finite-dimensional vector space. We study the relations between those notions and derive upper and lower bounds for the size of such sets. In the third part (Linear Codes) we show the relations between those notions and linear codes. Our main notion of a (t, k)-base bridges between two well-known structures: (1, k)-bases are just projective geometries, while (k−1, k)-bases correspond to maximal MDS-codes. We show how the properties of (t, k)-independence and (t, k)-spanning relate to the notions of minimum distance and covering radius of linear codes and how our results regarding the size of such sets relate to known bounds in coding theory. We conclude by comparing between the notions that we introduce here and some well known objects from projective geometry.      

Optimal investment strategies and risk-sharing arrangements for a hybrid pension plan

A continuous time stochastic model is used to study a hybrid pension plan, where both the contribution and benefit levels are adjusted depending on the performance of the plan, with risk sharing between different generations. The pension fund is invested in a risk-free asset and multiple risky assets. The objective is to seek an optimal investment strategy and optimal risk-sharing arrangements for plan trustees and participants so that this proposed hybrid pension system provides adequate and stable income to retirees while adjusting contributions effectively, as well as keeping its sustainability in the long run. These goals are achieved by minimizing the expected discount disutility of intermediate adjustment for both benefits and contributions and that of terminal wealth in finite time horizon. Using the stochastic optimal control approach, closed-form solutions are derived under quadratic loss function and exponential loss function. Numerical analysis is presented to illustrate the sensitivity of the optimal strategies to parameters of the financial market and how the optimal benefit changes with respect to different risk aversions. Through numerical analysis, we find that the optimal strategies do adjust the contributions and retirement benefits according to fund performance and model objectives so the intergenerational risk sharing seem effectively achieved for this collective hybrid pension plan.     

Pre-commitment or post-payment: Which worsens a line-sitting firm’s revenue?

Recently, Cui et al. (2018) investigated the economics of line-sitting, where a customer could hire a line-sitter to wait for her, and the line-sitting fee is paid at the completion of service. Usually, it is believed that the line-sitting firm benefits in the pre-commitment payment method, in which the customer still pays a pre-specified amount of fee for service even if the actual waiting time is less than the pre-committed wait. By comparing two payment mechanisms, we find that, surprisingly, under the optimal line-sitting rate, the revenue of firm worsens under pre-commitment case, but a better customer welfare can be obtained.     

以权分担三个值的亚纯函数

该文处理了以权分担三个值的亚纯函数唯一性问题, 获得的结果改进了文献[1]的全部结果.     

Elementary symmetric polynomials in Shamir's scheme

The concept of k-admissible tracks in Shamir's secret sharing scheme over a finite field was introduced by Schinzel et al. (2009) [10]. Using some estimates for the elementary symmetric polynomials, we show that the track (1,…,n) over Fp is practically always k-admissible; i.e., the scheme allows to place the secret as an arbitrary coefficient of its generic polynomial even for relatively small p. Here k is the threshold and n the number of shareholders.     

手机广告链中移动运营商的努力动机研究与仿真

建立了由单手机广告主、手机广告代理商和移动运营商构成的三级广告产业链之间的基于协作的收益共享契约模型,分析了在以移动运营商为主导的手机广告链中,移动运营商的努力动机受收益共享和努力成本补偿参数的影响.采用量化分析和模拟仿真结合的方法,得出契约参数只有在满足一定条件下,移动运营商所做出的最优努力水平投入决策,将使得整个手机产业链收益最大化,实现多方共赢.     

Forecasting cancellation rates for services booking revenue management using data mining

Revenue management (RM) enhances the revenues of a company by means of demand-management decisions. An RM system must take into account the possibility that a booking may be canceled, or that a booked customer may fail to show up at the time of service (no-show). We review the Passenger Name Record data mining based cancellation rate forecasting models proposed in the literature, which mainly address the no-show case. Using a real-world dataset, we illustrate how the set of relevant variables to describe cancellation behavior is very different in different stages of the booking horizon, which not only confirms the dynamic aspect of this problem, but will also help revenue managers better understand the drivers of cancellation. Finally, we examine the performance of the state-of-the-art data mining methods when applied to Passenger Name Record based cancellation rate forecasting.     

具有重值分担的亚纯函数

在考虑重值分担的情况下,得到一个具有三个分担值的亚纯函数的唯一性定理及若干推论,推广并改进了仪洪勋、Lah iri等人的结果.