Risk-Averse Capacity Control in Revenue Management


Book Description

This book revises the well-known capacity control problem in revenue management from the perspective of a risk-averse decision-maker. Modelling an expected utility maximizing decision maker, the problem is formulated as a risk-sensitive Markov decision process. Special emphasis is put on the existence of structured optimal policies. Numerical examples illustrate the results.




Operations Research Proceedings 2007


Book Description

The symposium Operations Research 2007 was held from September 5-7, 2007 at the Saarland University in Saarbru ̈cken. This international conference is at the same time the annual meeting of the German - erations Research Society (GOR). The transition in Germany (and many other countries in Europe) from a production orientation to a service society combined with a continuous demographic change generated a need for intensi?ed Op- ations Research activities in this area. On that account this conference has been devoted to the role of Operations Research in the service industry. The links to Operations Research are manifold and include many di?erent topics which are particularly emphasized in scienti?c sections of OR 2007. More than 420 participants from 30 countries made this event very international and successful. The program consisted of three p- nary,elevensemi-plenaryandmorethan300contributedpresentations, which had been organized in 18 sections. During the conference, the GOR Dissertation and Diploma Prizes were awarded. We congratulate all winners, especially Professor Wolfgang Domschke from the Da- stadt University of Technology, on receiving the GOR Scienti?c Prize Award.




Financial Risk Management with Bayesian Estimation of GARCH Models


Book Description

This book presents in detail methodologies for the Bayesian estimation of sing- regime and regime-switching GARCH models. These models are widespread and essential tools in n ancial econometrics and have, until recently, mainly been estimated using the classical Maximum Likelihood technique. As this study aims to demonstrate, the Bayesian approach o ers an attractive alternative which enables small sample results, robust estimation, model discrimination and probabilistic statements on nonlinear functions of the model parameters. The author is indebted to numerous individuals for help in the preparation of this study. Primarily, I owe a great debt to Prof. Dr. Philippe J. Deschamps who inspired me to study Bayesian econometrics, suggested the subject, guided me under his supervision and encouraged my research. I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Martin Wallmeier and my colleagues of the Department of Quantitative Economics, in particular Michael Beer, Roberto Cerratti and Gilles Kaltenrieder, for their useful comments and discussions. I am very indebted to my friends Carlos Ord as Criado, Julien A. Straubhaar, J er ^ ome Ph. A. Taillard and Mathieu Vuilleumier, for their support in the elds of economics, mathematics and statistics. Thanks also to my friend Kevin Barnes who helped with my English in this work. Finally, I am greatly indebted to my parents and grandparents for their support and encouragement while I was struggling with the writing of this thesis.




Dynamic Capacity Control in Air Cargo Revenue Management


Book Description

This book studies air cargo capacity control problems. The focus is on analyzing decision models with intuitive optimal decisions as well as on developing efficient heuristics and bounds. Three different models are studied: First, a model for steering the availability of cargo space on single legs. Second, a model that simultaneously optimizes the availability of both seats and cargo capacity. Third, a decision model that controls the availability of cargo capacity on a network of flights.




Fuzzy Portfolio Optimization


Book Description

Most of the existing portfolio selection models are based on the probability theory. Though they often deal with the uncertainty via probabilistic - proaches, we have to mention that the probabilistic approaches only partly capture the reality. Some other techniques have also been applied to handle the uncertainty of the ?nancial markets, for instance, the fuzzy set theory [Zadeh (1965)]. In reality, many events with fuzziness are characterized by probabilistic approaches, although they are not random events. The fuzzy set theory has been widely used to solve many practical problems, including ?nancial risk management. By using fuzzy mathematical approaches, quan- tative analysis, qualitative analysis, the experts’ knowledge and the investors’ subjective opinions can be better integrated into a portfolio selection model. The contents of this book mainly comprise of the authors’ research results for fuzzy portfolio selection problems in recent years. In addition, in the book, the authors will also introduce some other important progress in the ?eld of fuzzy portfolio optimization. Some fundamental issues and problems of po- folioselectionhavebeenstudiedsystematicallyandextensivelybytheauthors to apply fuzzy systems theory and optimization methods. A new framework for investment analysis is presented in this book. A series of portfolio sel- tion models are given and some of them might be more e?cient for practical applications. Some application examples are given to illustrate these models by using real data from the Chinese securities markets.




Revenue Management with Flexible Products


Book Description

This book analyzes revenue management (RM) problems with flexible products and RM in broadcasting companies. It presents models and methods that explicitly take the implications of flexibility into account. In addition, it contains descriptions of algorithms to generate stochastic demand data streams for general RM problems. To help readers with their own simulation studies, it provides an implementation as a Microsoft Windows executable file.




Pension Systems, Demographic Change, and the Stock Market


Book Description

Due to the accelerating demographic change of the population the reform of the existing pension systems constitutes one of the greatest political challenges in most European countries. A theoretical discussion of different pension reforms must incorporate not only the demographic aspect but also the role of financial market risk and the impact on production and employment. These notes develop a dynamic macroeconomic model which incorporates these aspects within a flexible theoretical framework. The proposed approach provides a large scale population model and features a sound description of the production side as well as of the financial side of the economy and their interactions with the pension system. Within this framework various adjustment policies of the pension system are studied under different population scenarios. The consequences for the economy and the welfare of consumers are analyzed and compared.




Applications in Statistical Computing


Book Description

This volume presents a selection of research papers on various topics at the interface of statistics and computer science. Emphasis is put on the practical applications of statistical methods in various disciplines, using machine learning and other computational methods. The book covers fields of research including the design of experiments, computational statistics, music data analysis, statistical process control, biometrics, industrial engineering, and econometrics. Gathering innovative, high-quality and scientifically relevant contributions, the volume was published in honor of Claus Weihs, Professor of Computational Statistics at TU Dortmund University, on the occasion of his 66th birthday.




Experimenting with Dynamic Macromodels


Book Description

This book presents a macroeconomic dynamic model à la Solow-Swan, including the market for labor, in a discrete time structure. The model is expanded to include expenditure on R&D and public expenditure on infrastructure. For each of the three models the results are shown in time series figures, which demonstrate that even small changes in the parameters produce responses in the time behavior of the main variables: from steady growth, to regular cycles, to chaotic-like time paths.




Artificial Markets Modeling


Book Description

This volume features contributions to agent-based computational modeling from the social sciences and computer sciences. It presents applications of methodologies and tools, focusing on the uses, requirements, and constraints of agent-based models used by social scientists. Topics include agent-based macroeconomics, the emergence of norms and conventions, the dynamics of social and economic networks, and behavioral models in financial markets.