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Related papers: Markov Decision Processes under Ambiguity

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An unconventional approach for optimal stopping under model ambiguity is introduced. Besides ambiguity itself, we take into account how ambiguity-averse an agent is. This inclusion of ambiguity attitude, via an $\alpha$-maxmin nonlinear…

Mathematical Finance · Quantitative Finance 2021-07-15 Yu-Jui Huang , Xiang Yu

This paper studies dynamic asset allocation with interest rate risk and several sources of ambiguity. The market consists of a risk-free asset, a zero-coupon bond (both determined by a Vasicek model), and a stock. There is ambiguity about…

Portfolio Management · Quantitative Finance 2023-10-30 Julian Hölzermann

In this paper, we propose a general theory of ambiguity-averse MDPs, which treats the uncertain transition probabilities as random variables and evaluates a policy via a risk measure applied to its random return. This ambiguity-averse MDP…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-04 Axel Benyamine , Julien Grand-Clément , Marek Petrik , Michael I. Jordan , Alain Durmus

We develop a framework for convexifying a fairly general class of optimization problems. Under additional assumptions, we analyze the suboptimality of the solution to the convexified problem relative to the original nonconvex problem and…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2014-06-04 Krishnamurthy Dvijotham , Maryam Fazel , Emanuel Todorov

We study non-rectangular robust Markov decision processes under the average-reward criterion, where the ambiguity set couples transition probabilities across states and the adversary commits to a stationary kernel for the entire horizon. We…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-11 Shengbo Wang , Nian Si

Economists often estimate economic models on data and use the point estimates as a stand-in for the truth when studying the model's implications for optimal decision-making. This practice ignores model ambiguity, exposes the decision…

Econometrics · Economics 2021-10-07 Maximilian Blesch , Philipp Eisenhauer

The distributionally robust Markov Decision Process (MDP) approach asks for a distributionally robust policy that achieves the maximal expected total reward under the most adversarial distribution of uncertain parameters. In this paper, we…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2018-10-10 Zhi Chen , Pengqian Yu , William B. Haskell

We consider large-scale Markov decision processes (MDPs) with a risk measure of variability in cost, under the risk-aware MDPs paradigm. Previous studies showed that risk-aware MDPs, based on a minimax approach to handling risk, can be…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2017-05-17 Pengqian Yu , William B. Haskell , Huan Xu

We consider a robust approach to address uncertainty in model parameters in Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), which are widely used to model dynamic optimization in many applications. Most prior works consider the case where the uncertainty…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-09-02 Vineet Goyal , Julien Grand-Clément

We study a an optimal high frequency trading problem within a market microstructure model designed to be a good compromise between accuracy and tractability. The stock price is driven by a Markov Renewal Process (MRP), while market orders…

Trading and Market Microstructure · Quantitative Finance 2015-01-06 Pietro Fodra , Huyên Pham

This paper develops risk-averse models to support system operators in planning and operating the electricity grid under uncertainty from renewable power generation. We incorporate financial risk hedging using conditional value at risk…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-01-06 Arash Khojaste , Jonathan Pearce , Daniela Pucci de Farias , Geoffrey Pritchard , Golbon Zakeri

We introduce the Lyapunov approach to optimal control problems of average risk-sensitive Markov control processes with general risk maps. Motivated by applications in particular to behavioral economics, we consider possibly non-convex risk…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-07-23 Yun Shen , Klaus Obermayer , Wilhelm Stannat

We consider the problem of designing policies for Markov decision processes (MDPs) with dynamic coherent risk objectives and constraints. We begin by formulating the problem in a Lagrangian framework. Under the assumption that the risk…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-03-30 Mohamadreza Ahmadi , Ugo Rosolia , Michel D. Ingham , Richard M. Murray , Aaron D. Ames

In this paper, we consider risk-sensitive Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with Borel state and action spaces and unbounded cost under both finite and infinite planning horizons. Our optimality criterion is based on the recursive…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-16 Nicole Bäuerle , Alexander Glauner

Risk-averse model predictive control (MPC) offers a control framework that allows one to account for ambiguity in the knowledge of the underlying probability distribution and unifies stochastic and worst-case MPC. In this paper we study…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-12-13 Pantelis Sopasakis , Domagoj Herceg , Alberto Bemporad , Panagiotis Patrinos

This paper deals with discrete-time Markov control processes on a general state space. A long-run risk-sensitive average cost criterion is used as a performance measure. The one-step cost function is nonnegative and possibly unbounded.…

Risk Management · Quantitative Finance 2016-08-14 Anna Jaśkiewicz

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are the defacto frame-work for sequential decision making in the presence ofstochastic uncertainty. A classical optimization criterion forMDPs is to maximize the expected discounted-sum pay-off, which…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-02-28 Tomas Brazdil , Krishnendu Chatterjee , Petr Novotny , Jiri Vahala

Ambiguity-averse decision makers typically dislike not only the presence of ambiguous events but also their increase, contrary to what standard ambiguity models predict. We axiomatically study such a decision maker. She avoids ex ante…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-25 Yutaro Akita , Kensei Nakamura

The problem of constrained Markov decision process is considered. An agent aims to maximize the expected accumulated discounted reward subject to multiple constraints on its costs (the number of constraints is relatively small). A new dual…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-10-21 Egor Gladin , Maksim Lavrik-Karmazin , Karina Zainullina , Varvara Rudenko , Alexander Gasnikov , Martin Takáč

We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) in which the transition probabilities and rewards belong to an uncertainty set parametrized by a collection of random variables. The probability distributions for these random parameters are…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2020-02-26 Murat Cubuktepe , Nils Jansen , Sebastian Junges , Joost-Pieter Katoen , Ufuk Topcu