46N10 Applications in optimization, convex analysis, mathematical programming, economics
Stability and Sensitivity of Optimization Problems with First Order Stochastic Dominance Constraints
(2007)
We analyze the stability and sensitivity of stochastic optimization problems with stochastic dominance constraints of first order. We consider general perturbations of the underlying probability measures in the space of regular measures equipped with a suitable discrepancy distance. We show that the graph of the feasible set mapping is closed under rather general assumptions. We obtain conditions for the continuity of the optimal value and upper-semicontinuity of the optimal solutions, as well as quantitative stability estimates of Lipschitz type.
Furthermore, we analyze the sensitivity of the optimal value and obtain upper and lower bounds for the directional
derivatives of the optimal value. The estimates are formulated in terms of the dual utility functions associated with the
dominance constraints.
Quasi-Newton methods based on least change secant updating
formulas that solve linear equations $Ax=b$ in $n=\dim(x)=\dim(b)$ steps
can be expected to solve corresponding smooth nonlinear
systems $n$-step quadratically, i.e. with an $r$-order
of $\rho = 2^{1/n} = 1 + 1/n +O(1/n^2)$. The best rate one can
possibly expect on general problems is given by the positive root
$\rho_n$ of $\rho^n(\rho -1)=1$, for which
$\rho_n-1 = \ln(n)/n + O(1/n^2)$. To show that this upper bound is
actually achieved one usually has to impose a priori some kind of
linear independence condition on the sequence of steps taken by the
quasi-Newton iteration in question. Without any such assumptions we
establish in this paper the convergence order $\rho_n$ for the
two-sided rank one formula proposed by Schlenkrich et al in \cite{SGW06}.
It requires the evaluation of adjoint vectors, is invariant with respect
to linear transformations on the variable domain and combines the
properties of bounded deterioration and heredity.