Stochastic Two Stage Programming

Stochastic Programming offers models and methods for decision problems wheresome of the data are uncertain. These models have features and structural properties which are preferably exploited by SP methods within the solution process. This work contributes to the methodology for two-stagemodels. In these models the objective function is given as an integral, whose integrand depends on a random vector, on its probability measure and on a decision. The main results of this work have been derived with the intention to ease these difficulties: After investigating duality relations for convex optimization problems with supply/demand and prices being treated as parameters, a stability criterion is stated and proves subdifferentiability of the value function. This criterion is employed for proving the existence of bilinear functions, which minorize/majorize the integrand. Additionally, these minorants/majorants support the integrand on generalized barycenters of simplicial faces of specially shaped polytopes and amount to an approach which is denoted barycentric approximation scheme.

Optimization problems involving stochastic models occur in almost all areas of science and engineering, such as telecommunications, medicine, and finance. Their existence compels a need for rigorous ways of formulating, analyzing, and solving such problems. This book focuses on optimization problems involving uncertain parameters and covers the theoretical foundations and recent advances in areas where stochastic models are available. Readers will find coverage of the basic concepts of modeling these problems, including recourse actions and the nonanticipativity principle. The book also includes the theory of two-stage and multistage stochastic programming problems; the current state of the theory on chance (probabilistic) constraints, including the structure of the problems, optimality theory, and duality; and statistical inference in and risk-averse approaches to stochastic programming.

This rapidly developing field encompasses many disciplines including operations research, mathematics, and probability. Conversely, it is being applied in a wide variety of subjects ranging from agriculture to financial planning and from industrial engineering to computer networks. This textbook provides a first course in stochastic programming suitable for students with a basic knowledge of linear programming, elementary analysis, and probability. The authors present a broad overview of the main themes and methods of the subject, thus helping students develop an intuition for how to model uncertainty into mathematical problems, what uncertainty changes bring to the decision process, and what techniques help to manage uncertainty in solving the problems. The early chapters introduce some worked examples of stochastic programming, demonstrate how a stochastic model is formally built, develop the properties of stochastic programs and the basic solution techniques used to solve them. The book then goes on to cover approximation and sampling techniques and is rounded off by an in-depth case study. A well-paced and wide-ranging introduction to this subject.

Consisting of two parts, this book presents papers describing publicly available stochastic programming systems that are operational. It presents a diverse collection of application papers in areas such as production, supply chain and scheduling, gaming, environmental and pollution control, financial modeling, telecommunications, and electricity.

Stochastic Programming offers models and methods for decision problems wheresome of the data are uncertain. These models have features and structural properties which are preferably exploited by SP methods within the solution process. This work contributes to the methodology for two-stagemodels. In these models the objective function is given as an integral, whose integrand depends on a random vector, on its probability measure and on a decision. The main results of this work have been derived with the intention to ease these difficulties: After investigating duality relations for convex optimization problems with supply/demand and prices being treated as parameters, a stability criterion is stated and proves subdifferentiability of the value function. This criterion is employed for proving the existence of bilinear functions, which minorize/majorize the integrand. Additionally, these minorants/majorants support the integrand on generalized barycenters of simplicial faces of specially shaped polytopes and amount to an approach which is denoted barycentric approximation scheme.

Optimization problems involving stochastic models occur in almost all areas of science and engineering, such as telecommunications, medicine, and finance. Their existence compels a need for rigorous ways of formulating, analyzing, and solving such problems. This book focuses on optimization problems involving uncertain parameters and covers the theoretical foundations and recent advances in areas where stochastic models are available.? In?Lectures on Stochastic Programming: Modeling and Theory, Second Edition, the authors introduce new material to reflect recent developments in stochastic programming, including: an analytical description of the tangent and normal cones of chance constrained sets; analysis of optimality conditions applied to nonconvex problems; a discussion of the stochastic dual dynamic programming method; an extended discussion of law invariant coherent risk measures and their Kusuoka representations; and in-depth analysis of dynamic risk measures and concepts of time consistency, including several new results.?

Brings together leading in the most important sub-fields of stochastic programming to present a rigourous overview of basic models, methods and applications of stochastic programming. The text is intended for researchers, students, engineers and economists, who encounter in their work optimization problems involving uncertainty.