Building on Reform: A Business Proposal to Strengthen Election Finance - Policy Report Newsletter, Fall 2006

A Committee for Economic Development newsletter

Intervention in Ornstein-Uhlenbeck SDEs

We introduce a notion of intervention for stochastic differential equations and a corresponding causal interpretation. For the case of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck SDE, we show that the SDE resulting from a simple type of intervention again is an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck SDE. We discuss criteria for the existence of a stationary distribution for the solution to the intervened SDE. We illustrate the effect of interventions by calculating the mean and variance in the stationary distribution of an intervened process in a particularly simple case.Comment: Extended version of article to be presented at the 18th EYS

Graphical modeling of stochastic processes driven by correlated errors

We study a class of graphs that represent local independence structures in stochastic processes allowing for correlated error processes. Several graphs may encode the same local independencies and we characterize such equivalence classes of graphs. In the worst case, the number of conditions in our characterizations grows superpolynomially as a function of the size of the node set in the graph. We show that deciding Markov equivalence is coNP-complete which suggests that our characterizations cannot be improved upon substantially. We prove a global Markov property in the case of a multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process which is driven by correlated Brownian motions.Comment: 43 page

A spectral mapping theorem for perturbed Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operators on L^2(R^d)

We consider Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operators perturbed by a radial potential. Under weak assumptions we prove a spectral mapping theorem for the generated semigroup. The proof relies on a perturbative construction of the resolvent, based on angular separation, and the Gearhart-Pr\"u{\ss} Theorem.Comment: 43 pages, improved presentation, suggestions by referees incorporated, will appear in Journal of Functional Analysi

Optimal dividend policies with random profitability

We study an optimal dividend problem under a bankruptcy constraint. Firms face a trade-off between potential bankruptcy and extraction of profits. In contrast to previous works, general cash flow drifts, including Ornstein--Uhlenbeck and CIR processes, are considered. We provide rigorous proofs of continuity of the value function, whence dynamic programming, as well as comparison between the sub- and supersolutions of the Hamilton--Jacobi--Bellman equation, and we provide an efficient and convergent numerical scheme for finding the solution. The value function is given by a nonlinear PDE with a gradient constraint from below in one dimension. We find that the optimal strategy is both a barrier and a band strategy and that it includes voluntary liquidation in parts of the state space. Finally, we present and numerically study extensions of the model, including equity issuance and credit lines

Brownian motion.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit