We study the problem of optimal dividend payout from a surplus process governed by Brownian motion with drift under the additional constraint of ratcheting, i.e. the dividend rate can never decrease. We solve the resulting two-dimensional optimal control problem, identifying the value function to be the unique viscosity solution of the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. For finitely many admissible dividend rates we prove that threshold strategies are optimal, and for any finite continuum of admissible dividend rates we establish the $\varepsilon$-optimality of curve strategies. This work is a counterpart of Albrecher et al. (2020), where the ratcheting problem was studied for a compound Poisson surplus process with drift. In the present Brownian setup, calculus of variation techniques allow to obtain a much more explicit analysis and description of the optimal dividend strategies. We also give some numerical illustrations of the optimality results.
We address a long-standing open problem in risk theory, namely the optimal strategy to pay out dividends from an insurance surplus process, if the dividend rate can never be decreased. The optimality criterion here is to maximize the expected value of the aggregate discounted dividend payments up to the time of ruin. In the framework of the classical Cramér-Lundberg risk model, we solve the corresponding two-dimensional optimal control problem and show that the value function is the unique viscosity solution of the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. We also show that the value fun…
In this paper, we consider the mixed ratcheting-periodic dividend strategies for spectrally negative Lévy risk model, in which dividend payments can both be made continuously without falling and discretely at the jump times of an independent Poisson process. The expected net present value(NPV) of dividends paid up to ruin and the Laplace transform of the ruin time are obtained by using Lévy fluctuation theory. All the results are expressed in terms of scale functions. Finally, numerical results for Brownian motion with drift are given.
We study a model for the translocation of proteins across membranes through a nanopore using a ratcheting mechanism. When the protein enters the nanopore it diffuses in and out of the pore according to a Brownian motion. Moreover, it is bound by ratcheting molecules which hinder the diffusion of the protein out of the nanopore, i.e. the Brownian motion is reflected such that no ratcheting molecule exits the pore. New ratcheting molecules bind at rate gamma. Extending our previous approach (Depperschmidt and Pfaffelhuber, 2010) we allow the ratcheting molecules to dissociate (at rate delta) fro…
This paper studies the finite horizon portfolio management by optimally tracking a ratcheting capital benchmark process. It is assumed that the fund manager can dynamically inject capital into the portfolio account such that the total capital dominates a non-decreasing benchmark floor process at each intermediate time. The tracking problem is formulated to minimize the cost of accumulated capital injection. We first transform the original problem with floor constraints into an unconstrained control problem, however, under a running maximum cost. By identifying a controlled state process with r…
Aiming for more realistic optimal dividend policies, we consider a stochastic control problem with linearly bounded control rates using a performance function given by the expected present value of dividend payments made up to ruin. In a Brownian model, we prove the optimality of a member of a new family of control strategies called delayed linear control strategies, for which the controlled process is a refracted diffusion process. For some parameters specifications, we retrieve the strategy initially proposed by Avanzi & Wong (2012) to regularize dividend payments, which is more consistent w…
In this paper we study a reflected Markov-modulated Brownian motion with a two sided reflection in which the drift, diffusion coefficient and the two boundaries are (jointly) modulated by a finite state space irreducible continuous time Markov chain. The goal is to compute the stationary distribution of this Markov process, which in addition to the complication of having a stochastic boundary can also include jumps at state change epochs of the underlying Markov chain because of the boundary changes. We give the general theory and then specialize to the case where the underlying Markov chain h…
In this paper we propose and solve an optimal dividend problem with capital injections over a finite time horizon. The surplus dynamics obeys a linearly controlled drifted Brownian motion that is reflected at the origin, dividends give rise to time-dependent instantaneous marginal profits, whereas capital injections are subject to time-dependent instantaneous marginal costs. The aim is to maximize the sum of a liquidation value at terminal time and of the total expected profits from dividends, net of the total expected costs for capital injections. Inspired by the study of El Karoui and Karatz…
In this paper we consider a classical risk process perturbed by a Brownian motion. We analyze the value function describing the mean of the cumulative discounted dividend payments paid up to Parisian ruin time and further discounted by the number of claims appeared up to this ruin time. We identify this value function for the barrier strategy and find the sufficient conditions for this strategy to be optimal. We also consider few particular examples.
We consider a dual risk model with constant expense rate and i.i.d. exponentially distributed gains $C_i$ ($i=1,2,\dots$) that arrive according to a renewal process with general interarrival times. We add to this classical dual risk model the proportional gain feature, that is, if the surplus process just before the $i$th arrival is at level $u$, then for $a>0$ the capital jumps up to the level $(1+a)u+C_i$. The ruin probability and the distribution of the time to ruin are determined. We furthermore identify the value of discounted cumulative dividend payments, for the case of a Poisson arriva…
Avanzi et al. (2016) recently studied an optimal dividend problem where dividends are paid both periodically and continuously with different transaction costs. In the Brownian model with Poissonian periodic dividend payment opportunities, they showed that the optimal strategy is either of the pure-continuous, pure-periodic, or hybrid-barrier type. In this paper, we generalize the results of their previous study to the dual (spectrally positive Lévy) model. The optimal strategy is again of the hybrid-barrier type and can be concisely expressed using the scale function. These results are confirm…
We consider a discrete-time version of the popular optimal dividend pay-out problem in risk theory. The novel aspect of our approach is that we allow for a risk averse insurer, i.e., instead of maximising the expected discounted dividends until ruin we maximise the expected utility of discounted dividends until ruin. This task has been proposed as an open problem in H. Gerber and E. Shiu (2004). The model in a continuous-time Brownian motion setting with the exponential utility function has been analysed in P. Grandits, F. Hubalek, W. Schachermayer and M. Zigo (2007). Nevertheless, a complete …
In this paper we solve the exit problems for an one-sided Markov additive process (MAP) which is exponentially killed with a bivariate killing intensity $ω(\cdot,\cdot)$ dependent on the present level of the process and the present state of the environment. Moreover, we analyze respective resolvents. All identities are given in terms of new generalizations of classical scale matrices for the MAP. We also remark on a number of applications of the obtained identities to (controlled) insurance risk processes. In particular, we show that our results can be applied to the so-called Omega model, whe…
We consider an insurance company modelling its surplus process by a Brownian motion with drift. Our target is to maximise the expected exponential utility of discounted dividend payments, given that the dividend rates are bounded by some constant. The utility function destroys the linearity and the time homogeneity of the considered problem. The value function depends not only on the surplus, but also on time. Numerical considerations suggest that the optimal strategy, if it exists, is of a barrier type with a non-linear barrier. In the related article by granditz et al., it has been observed …
In this paper, we study two optimisation settings for an insurance company, under the constraint that the terminal surplus at a deterministic and finite time $T$ follows a normal distribution with a given mean and a given variance. In both cases, the surplus of the insurance company is assumed to follow a Brownian motion with drift. First, we allow the insurance company to pay dividends and seek to maximise the expected discounted dividend payments or to minimise the ruin probability under the terminal distribution constraint. Here, we find explicit expressions for the optimal strategies in bo…
In this paper we investigate an optimal dividend problem with transaction costs, where the surplus process is modelled by a refracted Lévy process and the ruin time is considered with Parisian delay. Presence of the transaction costs implies that one need to consider the impulse control problem as a control strategy in such model. An impulse policy $(c_1,c_2)$, which is to reduce the reserves to some fixed level $c_1$ whenever they are above another level $c_2$ is an important strategy for the impulse control problem. Therefore, we give sufficient conditions under which the above described imp…
