Pricing Conspicuous Consumption Products in Recession Periods with Uncertain Strength

We compare different approaches of optimization under uncertainty in the context of pricing strategies for conspicuous consumption products in recession periods of uncertain duration and strength. We consider robust worst-case ideas and how the concepts of Value at Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) can be incorporated efficiently. The approaches are generic in … Read more

Risk Analysis 101: fooled by local robustness … again!

This article explains, again, why radius of stability models, such as info-gap’s robustness model, are models of local robustness and why they are therefore unsuitable for the treatment of severe uncertainty. CitationWorking Paper SM-12-2, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.ArticleDownload View PDF

Pareto Efficiency in Robust Optimization

This paper formalizes and adapts the well known concept of Pareto efficiency in the context of the popular robust optimization (RO) methodology. We argue that the classical RO paradigm need not produce solutions that possess the associated property of Pareto optimality, and illustrate via examples how this could lead to inefficiencies and sub-optimal performance in … Read more

A Probabilistic-Driven Search Algorithm for solving a Class of Optimization Problems

In this paper we introduce a new numerical optimization technique, a Probabilistic-Driven Search Algorithm. This algorithm has the following characteristics: 1) In each iteration of loop, the algorithm just changes the value of k variables to find a new solution better than the current one; 2) In each variable of the solution of the problem, … Read more

CHARACTERIZATIONS OF FULL STABILITY IN CONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION

This paper is mainly devoted to the study of the so-called full Lipschitzian stability of local solutions to finite-dimensional parameterized problems of constrained optimization, which has been well recognized as a very important property from both viewpoints of optimization theory and its applications. Based on second- order generalized differential tools of variational analysis, we obtain … Read more

Multi-Range Robust Optimization vs Stochastic Programming in Prioritizing Project Selection

This paper describes a multi-range robust optimization approach applied to the problem of capacity investment under uncertainty. In multi-range robust optimization, an uncertain parameter is allowed to take values from more than one uncertainty range. We consider a number of possible projects with anticipated costs and cash flows, and an investment decision to be made … Read more

Robust Decision Making using a General Utility Set

We develop the concept of utility robustness to address the problem of ambiguity and inconsistency in utility assessments. A robust decision-making framework is built on a utility set which characterizes a decision maker’s risk attitude described by boundary and auxiliary conditions. This framework is studied using the Sample Average Approximation (SAA) approach. We show the … Read more

Risk Analysis 101 — Robust-Optimization: the elephant in the robust-satisficing room

In 2001, info-gap decision theory re-invented the then 40-year old model of local robustness, known universally as radius of stability (circa 1960). Since then, this model of local robustness has been promoted by info-gap scholars as a reliable tool for the management of a severe uncertainty that is characterized by a vast (e.g. unbounded) uncertainty … Read more

Deriving robust counterparts of nonlinear uncertain inequalities

In this paper we provide a systematic way to construct the robust counterpart of a nonlinear uncertain inequality that is concave in the uncertain parameters. We use convex analysis (support functions, conjugate functions, Fenchel duality) and conic duality in order to convert the robust counterpart into an explicit and computationally tractable set of constraints. It … Read more