Optimal dividends and bankruptcy procedures: Analysis of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process

This paper investigates the impact of bankruptcy procedures on optimal dividend barrier policies. We specifically focus on Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, which allows a firm in default to continue its business for a certain period of time. Our model is based on the surplus of a firm that earns investment income at a constant rate of credit interest when it is in a creditworthy condition. The firm pays a debit interest rate that depends on the deficit level when it is in financial distress. Thus, the surplus follows an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) process with a negative surplus-dependent mean-reverting rate. Default and liquidation are modeled as distinguishable events by using an excursion time or occupation time framework. This paper demonstrates how the optimal dividend barrier can be obtained by deriving a closed-form solution for the dividend value function. It also characterizes the distributional property and expectation of bankruptcy time subject to the bankruptcy procedure. Our numerical examples show that under an optimal dividend barrier strategy, the bankruptcy procedure may not prolong the expected bankruptcy time in some situations.     

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For a financial or insurance entity, the problem of finding the optimal dividend distribution strategy and optimal firm value function is a widely discussed topic. In the present paper, it is assumed that the firm faces two types of liquidity risks: a Brownian risk and a Poisson risk. The firm can control the time and amount of dividends paid out to shareholders. By sufficiently taking into account the safety of the company, bankruptcy is said to take place at time $t$ if the cash reserve of the firm runs below the linear barrier b+kt (not zero), see 1. We deal with the problem of maximizing the expected total discounted dividends paid out until bankruptcy. The optimal dividend return (or, firm value) function is identified as the classical solution of the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation where a second-order differential-integro equation is involved. By solving the corresponding HJB equation, the analytical solution of the optimal firm value function is obtained, the optimal dividend strategy is also characterized, which is of linear barrier type: at time t the firm keeps cash inside when the cash reserves level is less than a critical linear barrier and pays cash in excess of this linear barrier as dividends.     

Optimal control of the insurance company with proportional reinsurance policy under solvency constraints

This paper considers the optimal control problem of the insurance company with proportional reinsurance policy under solvency constraints. The management of the company controls the reinsurance rate and dividends payout processes to maximize the expected present value of the dividend until the time of bankruptcy. This is a mixed singular-regular control problem. However, the optimal dividend payout barrier may be too low to be acceptable. The company may be prohibited to pay dividend according to external reasons because this low dividend payout barrier will result in bankruptcy soon. Therefore, some constraints on the insurance company’s dividend policy will be imposed. One reasonable and normal constraint is that if b is the minimum dividend barrier, then the bankrupt probability should not be larger than some predetermined ε within the time horizon T. This paper is to work out the optimal control policy of the insurance company under the solvency constraints.     

Dividend payments in the classical risk model under absolute ruin with debit interest

This paper attempts to study the dividend payments in a compound Poisson surplus process with debit interest. Dividends are paid to the shareholders according to a barrier strategy. An alternative assumption is that business can go on after ruin, as long as it is profitable. When the surplus is negative, a debit interest is applied. At first, we obtain the integro‐differential equations satisfied by the moment‐generating function and moments of the discounted dividend payments and we also prove the continuous property of them at zero. Then, applying these results, we get the explicit expressions of the moment‐generating function and moments of the discounted dividend payments for exponential claims. Furthermore, we discuss the optimal dividend barrier when the claim sizes have a common exponential distribution. Finally, we give the numerical examples for exponential claims and Erlang (2) claims. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal control of the insurance company with proportional reinsurance policy under solvency constraints

This paper considers the optimal control problem of the insurance company with proportional reinsurance policy under solvency constraints. The management of the company controls the reinsurance rate and dividends payout processes to maximize the expected present value of the dividend until the time of bankruptcy. This is a mixed singular-regular control problem. However, the optimal dividend payout barrier may be too low to be acceptable. The company may be prohibited to pay dividend according to external reasons because this low dividend payout barrier will result in bankruptcy soon. Therefore, some constraints on the insurance company’s dividend policy will be imposed. One reasonable and normal constraint is that if $b$ is the minimum dividend barrier, then the bankrupt probability should not be larger than some predetermined $\epsilon$ within the time horizon $T$. This paper is to work out the optimal control policy of the insurance company under the solvency constraints.     

Stochastic optimal control on dividend policies with bankruptcy

ABSTRACT

When a firm is at the edge of bankruptcy, it would endeavour to attract bailouts from governments or financial institutions to cast off bad situation. If this effort fails, then the firm would face to sell off their properties to pay their debts to loaners or shareholders. In this paper, from these two cases of bankruptcy, two optimal dividend policies are considered and analysed, respectively. In the case of unrestricted dividend payment rate, a terminal bankruptcy model with non-zero terminal value is put forward. An analytic solution for the optimal objective function, which maximizes the expected value of total discounted dividends before bankruptcy and the residual value at bankruptcy, is provided and verified. As a significant application, a non-terminal bankruptcy problem with bailouts is considered, an explicit solution and the corresponding control policies are also obtained. In the end, some numerical examples are listed and the influence of the recovery rate on the optimal strategies is also discussed.     

Optimal control of a big financial company with debt liability under bankrupt probability constraints

This paper considers an optimal control of a big financial company with debt liability under bankrupt probability constraints. The company, which faces constant liability payments and has choices to choose various production/business policies from an available set of control policies with different expected profits and risks, controls the business policy and dividend payout process to maximize the expected present value of the dividends until the time of bankruptcy. However, if the dividend payout barrier is too low to be acceptable, it may result in the company’s bankruptcy soon. In order to protect the shareholders’ profits, the managements of the company impose a reasonable and normal constraint on their dividend strategy, that is, the bankrupt probability associated with the optimal dividend payout barrier should be smaller than a given risk level within a fixed time horizon. This paper aims at working out the optimal control policy as well as optimal return function for the company under bankrupt probability constraint by stochastic analysis, partial differential equation and variational inequality approach. Moreover, we establish a riskbased capital standard to ensure the capital requirement can cover the total given risk by numerical analysis, and give reasonable economic interpretation for the results.     

Optimal dividends in the Brownian motion risk model with interest

In this paper, we consider a Brownian motion risk model, and in addition, the surplus earns investment income at a constant force of interest. The objective is to find a dividend policy so as to maximize the expected discounted value of dividend payments. It is well known that optimality is achieved by using a barrier strategy for unrestricted dividend rate. However, ultimate ruin of the company is certain if a barrier strategy is applied. In many circumstances this is not desirable. This consideration leads us to impose a restriction on the dividend stream. We assume that dividends are paid to the shareholders according to admissible strategies whose dividend rate is bounded by a constant. Under this additional constraint, we show that the optimal dividend strategy is formed by a threshold strategy.     

The Risk Model with Interest,Liquid Reserves and a Constant Dividend Barrier

In this paper, we consider the compound Poisson surplus model with interest, liquid reserves and a constant dividend barrier. When the surplus of an insurer is below a fixed level, the surplus is kept as liquid reserves, which does not earn interest. When the surplus attains the level, the surplus will receive interest at a constant rate. When the surplus hits another fixed higher lever, the excess of the surplus over this higher level will be distributed to the shareholders as dividends. We derive a system of integro-differential equations for the Gerber-Shiu discounted penalty function and obtain the solutions to these integro-differential equations. In the case where the claim sizes are exponential distributed, we get the exact solutions of zero discounted Gerber-Shiu function. We also get the integro-differential equation for the expectation of the discounted dividends until ruin which is the key to discuss the optimal dividend barrier. And we give the exact solution in the special case with exponential claim sizes.     

Optimal control problem for an insurance surplus model with debt liability

For an insurance company with a debt liability, they could make some management actions, such as reinsurance, paying dividends, and capital injection, to balance the profitability and financial bankruptcy. Our objective is to determine risk retention rate, dividend, and capital injection strategy so as to maximize the expected discounted dividends minus the discounted cost of capital injection until the time of ruin. We assume that the dividend payments and capital injection should occur with both fixed and proportional costs. We obtain explicit expressions of the optimal value functions as well as the corresponding optimal joint strategies by routine procedures in a comprehensive basic model using a new technique to solve the related equations. Our results show that whether recapitalizing is profitable or not depends on the costs of capital raising and that the firm injects capital only when the reserves are zero and recapitalizes to the optimal reserves level if the cost of external capital is low. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An elementary approach to discrete models of dividend strategies

The paper studies a discrete counterpart of Gerber et al. (2006). The surplus of an insurance company (before dividends) is modeled as a time-homogeneous Markov chain with possible changes of size +1,0,−1,−2,−3,…. If a barrier strategy is applied for paying dividends, it is shown that the dividends-penalty identity holds. The identity expresses the expected present value of a penalty at ruin in terms of the expected discounted dividends until ruin and the expected present value of the penalty at ruin if no dividends are paid. For the problem of maximizing the difference between the expected discounted dividends until ruin and the expected present value of the penalty at ruin, barrier strategies play a prominent role. In some cases an optimal dividend barrier exists. The paper discusses in detail the special case where the distribution of the change in surplus does not depend on the current surplus (so that in the absence of dividends the surplus process has independent increments). A closed-form result for zero initial surplus is given, and it is shown how the relevant quantities can be calculated recursively. Finally, it is shown how optimal dividend strategies can be determined; typically, they are band strategies.     

Optimal capital injection and dividend distribution for growth restricted diffusion models with bankruptcy

We consider the optimal capital injection and dividend control problem for a class of growth restricted diffusions with the possibility of bankruptcy. The surplus process of a company is modeled by a diffusion process with return and volatility being functions of the surplus process. The company can control the dividend payments and capital injections with the goal of maximizing the expectation of the total discounted dividends minus the total cost of capital injections up to the time of bankruptcy. We distinguish three cases and provide optimality results for each case.     

Dividend optimization for jump–diffusion model with solvency constraints

Belhaj (2010) established that a barrier strategy is optimal for the dividend problem under jump–diffusion model. However, if the optimal dividend barrier level is set too low, then the bankruptcy probability may be too high to be acceptable. This paper aims to address this issue by taking the solvency constrain into consideration. Precisely, we consider a dividend payment problem with solvency constraint under a jump–diffusion model. Using stochastic control and PIDE, we derive the optimal dividend strategy of the problem.     

Optimal risk and dividend control of an insurance company with exponential premium principle and liquidation value

Assume that an insurer can control it’s surplus by paying dividends, purchasing reinsurance and injecting capital. The exponential premium principle is used when pricing insurance contract instead of the expected value principle. Under the objective of maximizing the company’s value, we identify the optimal strategies with liquidation value and transaction costs. The results illustrate that the insurer should buy less reinsurance when the surplus increases, capital injection should be considered if and only if the transaction costs and the liquidation value are relatively low, dividends are paid according to barrier strategy if the dividend rate is unrestricted or threshold strategy if the dividend rate is bounded.     

On optimal dividends with exponential and linear penalty payments

We study the optimal dividend problem where the surplus process of an insurance company is modelled by a diffusion process. The insurer is not ruined when the surplus becomes negative, but penalty payments occur, depending on the level of the surplus. The penalty payments shall avoid that losses can rise above any number and can be seen as a preference measure or costs for negative capital. As examples, exponential and linear penalty payments are considered. It turns out that a barrier dividend strategy is optimal.     

Dependence of the Optimal Risk Control Decisions on the Terminal Value for a Financial Corporation

The paper deals with the model of a firm which has a possibility to choose among a variety of production/business policies with different risk and profit potential. The objective is to find the policy which maximizes the expected total discounted dividend pay-out until the time of bankruptcy. The bankruptcy is defined as the time when the liquid assets of the company vanish. A typical example of such a corporation would be an insurance company whose different business activities correspond to choosing different levels of reinsurance.The main novelty of this model is in introduction of terminal value of the company at the time of the bankruptcy. This could be the value of non liquid assets (such as real estate or the rights to conduct business or the trade name), which at the time of bankruptcy are subject to sale with proceeds distributed among shareholders. We model the dynamics of the corporate liquid assets as a diffusion process with controllable drift and diffusion coefficients. Diffusion coefficient corresponds to risk, while drift represents potential profit. In our model the potential profit proportional to the risk. The dividend distribution is modeled by an increasing functional, which is also controllable. We show how to obtain solution for this problem starting with the solution to the problem with zero terminal value.     

The Markov Additive Risk Process Under an Erlangized Dividend Barrier Strategy

In this paper, we consider a Markov additive insurance risk process under a randomized dividend strategy in the spirit of Albrecher et al. (2011). Decisions on whether to pay dividends are only made at a sequence of dividend decision time points whose intervals are Erlang(n) distributed. At a dividend decision time, if the surplus level is larger than a predetermined dividend barrier, then the excess is paid as a dividend as long as ruin has not occurred. In contrast to Albrecher et al. (2011), it is assumed that the event of ruin is monitored continuously (Avanzi et al. (2013) and Zhang (2014)), i.e. the surplus process is stopped immediately once it drops below zero. The quantities of our interest include the Gerber-Shiu expected discounted penalty function and the expected present value of dividends paid until ruin. Solutions are derived with the use of Markov renewal equations. Numerical examples are given, and the optimal dividend barrier is identified in some cases.     

Optimal dividend-equity issuance strategy in a dual model with fixed and proportional transaction costs

In this paper, we consider the problem of optimal dividend payout and equity issuance for a company whose liquid asset is modeled by the dual of classical risk model with diffusion. We assume that there exist both proportional and fixed transaction costs when issuing new equity. Our objective is to maximize the expected cumulative present value of the dividend payout minus the equity issuance until the time of bankruptcy,which is defined as the first time when the company’s capital reserve falls below zero. The solution to the mixed impulse-singular control problem relies on two auxiliary subproblems: one is the classical dividend problem without equity issuance, and the other one assumes that the company never goes bankrupt by equity issuance.We first provide closed-form expressions of the value functions and the optimal strategies for both auxiliary subproblems. We then identify the solution to the original problem with either of the auxiliary problems. Our results show that the optimal strategy should either allow for bankruptcy or keep the company’s reserve above zero by issuing new equity, depending on the model’s parameters. We also present some economic interpretations and sensitivity analysis for our results by theoretical analysis and numerical examples.     

Optimal dividend and investing control of an insurance company with higher solvency constraints

This paper considers the optimal control problem of a large insurance company under a fixed insolvency probability. The company controls proportional reinsurance rate, dividend pay-outs and investing process to maximize the expected present value of the dividend pay-outs until the time of bankruptcy. This paper aims at describing the optimal return function as well as the optimal policy. As a by-product, the paper theoretically sets a risk-based capital standard to ensure the capital requirement that can cover the total risk.     

Optimal dividend and investing control of an insurance company with higher solvency constraints

This paper considers the optimal control problem of a large insurance company under a fixed insolvency probability. The company controls proportional reinsurance rate, dividend pay-outs and investing process to maximize the expected present value of the dividend pay-outs until the time of bankruptcy. This paper aims at describing the optimal return function as well as the optimal policy. As a by-product, the paper theoretically sets a risk-based capital standard to ensure the capital requirement that can cover the total risk.