Stochastic dynamic programming with non-linear discounting

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bäuerle, Nicole, Jaśkiewicz, Anna, Nowak, Andrzej S.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2020
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_version_ 1866917016148901888
author Bäuerle, Nicole
Jaśkiewicz, Anna
Nowak, Andrzej S.
author_facet Bäuerle, Nicole
Jaśkiewicz, Anna
Nowak, Andrzej S.
contents In this paper, we study a Markov decision process with a non-linear discount function and with a Borel state space. We define a recursive discounted utility, which resembles non-additive utility functions considered in a number of models in economics. Non-additivity here follows from non-linearity of the discount function. Our study is complementary to the work of Jaśkiewicz, Matkowski and Nowak (Math. Oper. Res. 38 (2013), 108-121), where also non-linear discounting is used in the stochastic setting, but the expectation of utilities aggregated on the space of all histories of the process is applied leading to a non-stationary dynamic programming model. Our aim is to prove that in the recursive discounted utility case the Bellman equation has a solution and there exists an optimal stationary policy for the problem in the infinite time horizon. Our approach includes two cases: $(a)$ when the one-stage utility is bounded on both sides by a weight function multiplied by some positive and negative constants, and $(b)$ when the one-stage utility is unbounded from below.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2011_02239
institution arXiv
publishDate 2020
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stochastic dynamic programming with non-linear discounting
Bäuerle, Nicole
Jaśkiewicz, Anna
Nowak, Andrzej S.
Optimization and Control
Probability
90C40, 60J05, 90C39, 90B32, 90B62
In this paper, we study a Markov decision process with a non-linear discount function and with a Borel state space. We define a recursive discounted utility, which resembles non-additive utility functions considered in a number of models in economics. Non-additivity here follows from non-linearity of the discount function. Our study is complementary to the work of Jaśkiewicz, Matkowski and Nowak (Math. Oper. Res. 38 (2013), 108-121), where also non-linear discounting is used in the stochastic setting, but the expectation of utilities aggregated on the space of all histories of the process is applied leading to a non-stationary dynamic programming model. Our aim is to prove that in the recursive discounted utility case the Bellman equation has a solution and there exists an optimal stationary policy for the problem in the infinite time horizon. Our approach includes two cases: $(a)$ when the one-stage utility is bounded on both sides by a weight function multiplied by some positive and negative constants, and $(b)$ when the one-stage utility is unbounded from below.
title Stochastic dynamic programming with non-linear discounting
topic Optimization and Control
Probability
90C40, 60J05, 90C39, 90B32, 90B62
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.02239