One-sided solutions for optimal stopping problems with logconcave reward functions

Yi-Shen Lin, Yi-Ching Yao

Published 2017-10-12Version 1

In the literature on optimal stopping, the problem of maximizing the expected discounted reward over all stopping times has been explicitly solved for some special reward functions (including $(x^+)^{\nu}$, $(e^x-K)^+$, $(K-e^{-x})^+$, $x\in\mathbb{R}$, $\nu\in(0,\infty)$ and $K>0$) under general random walks in discrete time and L\'evy processes in continuous time (subject to mild integrability conditions). All of such reward functions are continuous, increasing and logconcave while the corresponding optimal stopping times are of threshold type (i.e. the solutions are one-sided). In this paper, we show that all optimal stopping problems with increasing, logconcave and right-continuous reward functions admit one-sided solutions for general random walks and L\'evy processes. We also investigate in detail the principle of smooth fit for L\'evy processes when the reward function is increasing and logconcave.