IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/spapps/v107y2003i2p173-212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the optimal stopping problem for one-dimensional diffusions

Author

Listed:
  • Dayanik, Savas
  • Karatzas, Ioannis

Abstract

A new characterization of excessive functions for arbitrary one-dimensional regular diffusion processes is provided, using the notion of concavity. It is shown that excessivity is equivalent to concavity in some suitable generalized sense. This permits a characterization of the value function of the optimal stopping problem as "the smallest nonnegative concave majorant of the reward function" and allows us to generalize results of Dynkin and Yushkevich for standard Brownian motion. Moreover, we show how to reduce the discounted optimal stopping problems for an arbitrary diffusion process to an undiscounted optimal stopping problem for standard Brownian motion. The concavity of the value functions also leads to conclusions about their smoothness, thanks to the properties of concave functions. One is thus led to a new perspective and new facts about the principle of smooth-fit in the context of optimal stopping. The results are illustrated in detail on a number of non-trivial, concrete optimal stopping problems, both old and new.

Suggested Citation

  • Dayanik, Savas & Karatzas, Ioannis, 2003. "On the optimal stopping problem for one-dimensional diffusions," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 173-212, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:spapps:v:107:y:2003:i:2:p:173-212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304-4149(03)00076-0
    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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bank, Peter & El Karoui, Nicole, 2001. "A stochastic representation theorem with applications to optimization and obstacle problems," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2002,4, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    2. repec:spr:compst:v:54:y:2001:i:2:p:315-337 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Karatzas, Ioannis & Ocone, Daniel, 2002. "A leavable bounded-velocity stochastic control problem," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 31-51, May.
    4. Broadie, Mark & Detemple, Jerome, 1995. "American Capped Call Options on Dividend-Paying Assets," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 161-191.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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:107:y:2003:i:2:p:173-212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

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

    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.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.