Ye Lu

The Effect of Supply Uncertainty in Price-Setting Newsvendor Models

We consider a price-setting newsvendor model in which a firm needs to make joint inventory and pricing decisions before the selling season. The supply process is uncertain such that the received quantity is the product of the order quantity and a random yield rate. Two cost structures are investigated, the in-house production case in which the firm pays for the input quantity and the procurement case in which the firm pays for the quantity received only. Our objective is to investigate the effect of yield randomness on optimal decisions and expected profit. By using the theory of stochastic comparisons, we find that under both cost structures, a less variable yield rate leads to a lower optimal price and a higher expected profit. Moreover, we show that in the in-house production case, a stochastically larger yield rate also results in a lower optimal price and a higher profit, but this is not true in the procurement case. Examples show that the effect of supply uncertainty on optimal order quantity is not universal.

An Interior-Point Trust-Region Algorithm for General Symmetric Cone Programming

An interior-point trust-region algorithm is proposed for minimizing a general (non-convex) quadratic objective function in the intersection of a symmetric cone and an affine subspace. The algorithm uses a trust-region model to ensure descent on a suitable merit function. Global first-order and second-order convergence results are proved. Numerical results are presented.

Optimal Pricing and Inventory Control Policy with Quantity-Based Price Differentiation

A firm facing price dependent stochastic demand aims to maximize its total expected profit over a planning horizon. In addition to the regular unit selling price, the firm can utilize quantity discounts to increase sales. We refer to this dual-pricing strategy as quantity-based price differentiation. At the beginning of each period, the firm needs to make three decisions: replenish the inventory, set the unit selling price if the unit sales mode is deployed, and set the quantity-discount price if the quantity-sales mode is deployed (or the combination of the two modes of sales). We identify conditions under which the optimal inventory control policy and selling/pricing strategy is well structured. Remarkably, under a utility-based demand framework, these conditions can be unified by a simple regularity assumption that has long been used in the auction and mechanism design literature. Moreover, sharper structural results are yielded for the optimal selling strategy. We also examine the comparative advantag...

An interior-point trust-region polynomial algorithm for convex quadratic minimization subject to general convex constraints

Abstract An interior-point trust-region algorithm is proposed for minimization of a convex quadratic objective function over a general convex set. The algorithm uses a trust-region model to ensure descent on a suitable merit function. The complexity of our algorithm is proved to be as good as the interior-point polynomial algorithm.

STABILITY AND ALLOCATION IN A THREE-PLAYER GAME

We study a three-player cooperative game with transferable utility where the players may form different coalition structures. A new concept of stability of a coalition is introduced, and the existence of a stable coalition is proven. Based on this stability concept, a novel approach is given to determine sensible allocations in a grand coalition of three players. We also compare our result with classical core solution and implement our theory on a specific price model.

Stock repurchase with an adaptive reservation price: A study of the greedy policy

We consider the problem of stock repurchase over a finite time horizon. We assume that a firm has a reservation price for the stock, which is the highest price that the firm is willing to pay to repurchase its own stock. We characterize the optimal policy for the trader to maximize the total number of shares that they can buy over a fixed time horizon. In particular, we study a greedy policy, which involves in each period buying a quantity that drives stock price to the reservation price.