Semidefinite Programming Reformulation of Completely Positive Programs: Range Estimation and Best-Worst Choice Modeling

We show that the worst case moment bound on the expected optimal value of a mixed integer linear program with a random objective c is closely related to the complexity of characterizing the convex hull of the points CH{(1 x) (1 x)’: x \in X} where X is the feasible region. In fact, we can … Read more

A Convex Optimization Approach for Computing Correlated Choice Probabilities with Many Alternatives

A popular discrete choice model that incorporates correlation information is the Multinomial Probit (MNP) model where the random utilities of the alternatives are chosen from a multivariate normal distribution. Computing the choice probabilities is challenging in the MNP model when the number of alternatives is large and simulation is used to approximate the choice probabilities. … Read more

A Penalized Quadratic Convex Reformulation Method for Random Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization

The Quadratic Convex Reformulation (QCR) method is used to solve quadratic unconstrained binary optimization problems. In this method, the semidefinite relaxation is used to reformulate it to a convex binary quadratic program which is solved using mixed integer quadratic programming solvers. We extend this method to random quadratic unconstrained binary optimization problems. We develop a … Read more

Robustness to Dependency in Portfolio Optimization Using Overlapping Marginals

In this paper, we develop a distributionally robust portfolio optimization model where the robustness is to different dependency structures among the random losses. For a Frechet class of distributions with overlapping marginals, we show that the distributionally robust portfolio optimization problem is efficiently solvable with linear programming. To guarantee the existence of a joint multivariate … Read more

A Probabilistic Model for Minmax Regret in Combinatorial Optimization

In this paper, we propose a probabilistic model for minimizing the anticipated regret in combinatorial optimization problems with distributional uncertainty in the objective coefficients. The interval uncertainty representation of data is supplemented with information on the marginal distributions. As a decision criterion, we minimize the worst-case conditional value-at-risk of regret. The proposed model includes the … Read more

On the Complexity of Non-Overlapping Multivariate Marginal Bounds for Probabilistic Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Given a combinatorial optimization problem with an arbitrary partition of the set of random objective coefficients, we evaluate the tightest possible bound on the expected optimal value for joint distributions consistent with the given multivariate marginals of the subsets in the partition. For univariate marginals, this bound was first proposed by Meilijson and Nadas (Journal … Read more

Mixed Zero-one Linear Programs Under Objective Uncertainty: A Completely Positive Representation

In this paper, we analyze mixed 0-1 linear programs under objective uncertainty. The mean vector and the second moment matrix of the nonnegative objective coefficients is assumed to be known, but the exact form of the distribution is unknown. Our main result shows that computing a tight upper bound on the expected value of a … Read more

Asymmetry and Ambiguity in Newsvendor Models

The traditional decision-making framework for newsvendor models is to assume a distribution of the underlying demand. However, the resulting optimal policy is typically sensitive to the choice of the distribution. A more conservative approach is to assume that the distribution belongs to a set parameterized by a few known moments. An ambiguity-averse newsvendor would choose … Read more

Models for Minimax Stochastic Linear Optimization Problems with Risk Aversion

In this paper, we propose a semidefinite optimization (SDP) based model for the class of minimax two-stage stochastic linear optimization problems with risk aversion. The distribution of the second-stage random variables is assumed to be chosen from a set of multivariate distributions with known mean and second moment matrix. For the minimax stochastic problem with … Read more

Tractable Robust Expected Utility and Risk Models for Portfolio Optimization

Expected utility models in portfolio optimization is based on the assumption of complete knowledge of the distribution of random returns. In this paper, we relax this assumption to the knowledge of only the mean, covariance and support information. No additional assumption on the type of distribution such as normality is made. The investor’s utility is … Read more