IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/spapps/v55y1995i2p315-327.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The best-choice secretary problem with random freeze on jobs

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel-Cahn, Ester

Abstract

We consider the best-choice secretary problem, with a known number, n, of applicants, and a random, independent "freeze" variable M, with known distribution. No hiring is possible after time M. The goal is to choose the best among the n applicants, where the decisions must be made depending only on the relative ranks of the applicants observed so far. A necessary and sufficient condition is given for the optimal rule to have the "simple" structure: let k* -- 1 applicants pass, and stop with the first applicant (if any) from the k*th onward, who is better than all previous observed candidates. For uniform, geometric and Poisson freeze variables the optimal rules are simple. Some asymptotic results (as n --> [infinity]), and minimax results are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel-Cahn, Ester, 1995. "The best-choice secretary problem with random freeze on jobs," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 315-327, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:spapps:v:55:y:1995:i:2:p:315-327
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304-4149(94)00042-R
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:spapps:v:55:y:1995:i:2:p:315-327. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505572/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.