Abstract
Multistage stochastic programs have applications in many areas and support policy makers in finding rational decisions that hedge against unforeseen negative events. In order to ensure computational tractability, continuous-state stochastic programs are usually discretized; and frequently, the curse of dimensionality dictates that decision stages must be aggregated. In this article we construct two discrete, stage-aggregated stochastic programs which provide upper and lower bounds on the optimal value of the original problem. The approximate problems involve finitely many decisions and constraints, thus principally allowing for numerical solution.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ash R. (1972) Real Analysis and Probability. Probability and Mathematical Statistics. Academic, Berlin Heidelberg Newyork
Birge J. (1984) Aggregation in stochastic production models. In: Proceedings of the 11th IFIP Conference on System Modelling and Optimization. Springer Berlin Heidelberg Newyork, New York
Birge J. (1985) Aggregation in stochastic linear programming. Math. Program. 31, 25–41
Birge, J., Louveaux, F.: Introduction to Stochastic Programming. Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York (1997)
Birge J., Wets R.B. (1987) Computing bounds for stochastic programming problems by means of a generalized moment problem. Math. Oper. Res. 12, 149–162
Casey M., Sen S. (2005) The scenario generation algorithm for multistage stochastic linear programming. Math. Oper. Res. 30(3): 615–631
Chow Y., Teicher H. (1997) Probability Theory, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, New York
Dantzig G., Infanger G. (1992) Large-scale stochastic linear programs–importance sampling and Benders decomposition. Comput. Appl. Math. I: 111–120
Dawid A. (1980) Conditional independence for statistical operations. Ann. Stat. 8(3): 598–617
Dempster M., Thompson R. (1999) EVPI-based importance sampling solution procedures for multistage stochastic linear programmes on parallel MIMD architectures. Ann. Oper. Res. 90, 161–184
Dupačová J., Gröwe-Kuska N., Römisch W. (2003) Scenario reduction in stochastic programming: an approach using probability metrics. Math. Program. Ser. A 95, 493–511
Edirisinghe N., Ziemba W. (1994) Bounding the expectation of a saddle function with application to stochastic programming. Math. Oper. Res. 19, 314–340
Edirisinghe N., Ziemba W. (1994) Bounds for two-stage stochastic programs with fixed recourse. Math. Oper. Res. 19, 292–313
Ermoliev Y., Gaivoronski A. (1992) Stochastic quasigradient methods for optimization of discrete event systems. Ann. Oper. Res. 39, 1–39
Flåm S., Wets R.B. (1986) Finite horizon approximates of infinite horizon stochastic programs. Stochas. Optim. 81, 337–350
Flåm S., Wets R.B. (1987) Existence results and finite horizon approximates for infinite horizon optimization problems. Econometrica 55, 1187–1209
Frauendorfer K. (1988) Solving SLP recourse problems with arbitrary multivariate distributions – the dependent case. Math. Oper. Res. 13, 377–394
Frauendorfer K. (1992) Stochastic two-stage programming, Lect. Notes Econ. Math. Syst., vol. 392 Springer, Berlin Heidelberg Newyork
Frauendorfer K. (1994) Multistage stochastic programming: Error analysis for the convex case. Z. Oper. Res. 39(1): 93–122
Frauendorfer K. (1996) Barycentric scenario trees in convex multistage stochastic programming. Math. Program. 75(2): 277–294
Gassmann H., Ziemba W. (1986) A tight upper bound for the expectation of a convex function of a multivariate random variable. Math. Program. Study 27, 39–53
Haarbrücker, G., Kuhn, D.: Valuation of electricity swing options by multistage stochastic programming. Working paper (2004)
Heitsch H., Römisch W. (2003) Scenario reduction algorithms in stochastic programming. Comput. Optim. Appl. 24, 187–206
Higle J., Sen S. (1991) Stochastic decomposition: An algorithm for two-stage linear programs with recourse. Math. Oper. Res. 16, 650 fb–669
Høyland K., Wallace S. (2001) Generating scenario trees for multistage decision problems. Manage. Sci. 47(2): 295–307
Infanger G. (1994) Planning under Uncertainty: Solving Large-Scale Stochastic Linear Programs. Boyd and Fraser, Danvers
Kall P. (1991) An upper bound for SLP using first and total second moments. Ann. Oper. Res. 30, 267–276
Kall P., Wallace S. (1994) Stochastic Programming. Wiley, Chichester
Kaut, M., Wallace, S.: Evaluation of scenario-generation methods for stochastic programming. The Stochastic Programming E-Print Series (SPEPS) (2003)
Korf, L.: An approximation framework for infinite horizon stochastic dynamic optimization problems with discounted cost. Research report, Department of Mathematics, Washington University, Seattle, USA (2000)
Kuhn D. (2004) Generalized Bounds for Convex Multistage Stochastic Programs. Lect. Notes Econ. Math. Syst., vol. 548.Springer, Berlin Heidelberg Newyork
Madansky A. (1960) Inequalities for stochastic linear programming problems. Manage. Sci. 6, 197–204
Meyn S., Tweedie R. (1996) Markov Chains and Stochastic Stability. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Pearl J. (1991) Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems, 2nd edn. Morgan Kaufman, San Mateo
Pflug G. (2001) Scenario tree generation for multiperiod financial optimization by optimal discretization. Math. Program., Ser. B 89, 251–271
Prékopa A. (1995) Stochastic Programming. Kluwer, Dordrecht
Rachev S., Römisch W. (2002) Quantitative stability in stochastic programming: the method of probability metrics. Math. Oper. Res. 27, 792–818
Rockafellar R., Wets R.B. (1978) The optimal recourse problem in discrete time: L 1-multipliers for equality constraints. SIAM J. Control Optim. 16, 16–36
Schervish, M.: Theory of Statistics. Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York (1995)
Shapiro A. (2006) On complexity of multistage stochastic programs. Oper. Res. Lett. 34, 1–8
Shapiro A., Nemirovski A. (2005) On complexity of stochastic programming problems. In: Jeyakumar V., Rubinov A. (eds) Continuous Optimization: Current Trends and Applications, pp. 111–144. Springer Berlin Heidelberg Newyork
Verma, T., Pearl, J.: Causal networks and expressiveness. In: Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, pp. 352–359. Mountain View, CA (1988)
Dupačová (as Žáčková) J. (1966) On minimax solutions of stochastic linear programming problems. časopis pro Pěstování Matematiky 91, 423–429
Wright S. (1994) Primal-dual aggregation and disaggregation for stochastic linear programs. Math. Oper. Res. 19(4): 893–908
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kuhn, D. Aggregation and discretization in multistage stochastic programming. Math. Program. 113, 61–94 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-006-0048-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-006-0048-6