IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v58y2010i3p595-612.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Distributionally Robust Optimization Under Moment Uncertainty with Application to Data-Driven Problems

Author

Listed:
  • Erick Delage

    (Department of Management Sciences, HEC Montréal, Montreal, Quebec H3T 2A7, Canada)

  • Yinyu Ye

    (Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305)

Abstract

Stochastic programming can effectively describe many decision-making problems in uncertain environments. Unfortunately, such programs are often computationally demanding to solve. In addition, their solution can be misleading when there is ambiguity in the choice of a distribution for the random parameters. In this paper, we propose a model that describes uncertainty in both the distribution form (discrete, Gaussian, exponential, etc.) and moments (mean and covariance matrix). We demonstrate that for a wide range of cost functions the associated distributionally robust (or min-max) stochastic program can be solved efficiently. Furthermore, by deriving a new confidence region for the mean and the covariance matrix of a random vector, we provide probabilistic arguments for using our model in problems that rely heavily on historical data. These arguments are confirmed in a practical example of portfolio selection, where our framework leads to better-performing policies on the “true” distribution underlying the daily returns of financial assets.

Suggested Citation

  • Erick Delage & Yinyu Ye, 2010. "Distributionally Robust Optimization Under Moment Uncertainty with Application to Data-Driven Problems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(3), pages 595-612, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:58:y:2010:i:3:p:595-612
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1090.0741
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1090.0741
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.1090.0741?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniela Pucci de Farias & Benjamin Van Roy, 2004. "On Constraint Sampling in the Linear Programming Approach to Approximate Dynamic Programming," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 462-478, August.
    2. G. C. Calafiore & L. El Ghaoui, 2006. "On Distributionally Robust Chance-Constrained Linear Programs," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 1-22, July.
    3. John R. Birge & Roger J.-B. Wets, 1987. "Computing Bounds for Stochastic Programming Problems by Means of a Generalized Moment Problem," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(1), pages 149-162, February.
    4. Shushang Zhu & Masao Fukushima, 2009. "Worst-Case Conditional Value-at-Risk with Application to Robust Portfolio Management," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(5), pages 1155-1168, October.
    5. A. Ben-Tal & A. Nemirovski, 1998. "Robust Convex Optimization," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 769-805, November.
    6. D. Goldfarb & G. Iyengar, 2003. "Robust Portfolio Selection Problems," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(1), pages 1-38, February.
    7. Jinfeng Yue & Bintong Chen & Min-Chiang Wang, 2006. "Expected Value of Distribution Information for the Newsvendor Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(6), pages 1128-1136, December.
    8. Ioana Popescu, 2007. "Robust Mean-Covariance Solutions for Stochastic Optimization," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 98-112, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. L. Jeff Hong & Zhiyuan Huang & Henry Lam, 2021. "Learning-Based Robust Optimization: Procedures and Statistical Guarantees," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3447-3467, June.
    2. Postek, Krzysztof & Ben-Tal, A. & den Hertog, Dick & Melenberg, Bertrand, 2015. "Exact Robust Counterparts of Ambiguous Stochastic Constraints Under Mean and Dispersion Information," Other publications TiSEM d718e419-a375-4707-b206-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. van Eekelen, Wouter, 2023. "Distributionally robust views on queues and related stochastic models," Other publications TiSEM 9b99fc05-9d68-48eb-ae8c-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Panos Xidonas & Ralph Steuer & Christis Hassapis, 2020. "Robust portfolio optimization: a categorized bibliographic review," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 292(1), pages 533-552, September.
    5. Postek, Krzysztof & Ben-Tal, A. & den Hertog, Dick & Melenberg, Bertrand, 2015. "Exact Robust Counterparts of Ambiguous Stochastic Constraints Under Mean and Dispersion Information," Discussion Paper 2015-030, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Li Chen & Simai He & Shuzhong Zhang, 2011. "Tight Bounds for Some Risk Measures, with Applications to Robust Portfolio Selection," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(4), pages 847-865, August.
    7. Alireza Ghahtarani & Ahmed Saif & Alireza Ghasemi, 2022. "Robust portfolio selection problems: a comprehensive review," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3203-3264, September.
    8. Alireza Ghahtarani & Ahmed Saif & Alireza Ghasemi, 2021. "Robust Portfolio Selection Problems: A Comprehensive Review," Papers 2103.13806, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    9. Antonios Georgantas & Michalis Doumpos & Constantin Zopounidis, 2024. "Robust optimization approaches for portfolio selection: a comparative analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 339(3), pages 1205-1221, August.
    10. Maillet, Bertrand & Tokpavi, Sessi & Vaucher, Benoit, 2015. "Global minimum variance portfolio optimisation under some model risk: A robust regression-based approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(1), pages 289-299.
    11. Kolm, Petter N. & Tütüncü, Reha & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2014. "60 Years of portfolio optimization: Practical challenges and current trends," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 356-371.
    12. A. Paç & Mustafa Pınar, 2014. "Robust portfolio choice with CVaR and VaR under distribution and mean return ambiguity," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 22(3), pages 875-891, October.
    13. Jonathan Li & Roy Kwon, 2013. "Portfolio selection under model uncertainty: a penalized moment-based optimization approach," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 131-164, May.
    14. Shipra Agrawal & Yichuan Ding & Amin Saberi & Yinyu Ye, 2012. "Price of Correlations in Stochastic Optimization," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(1), pages 150-162, February.
    15. Michal Houda, 2007. "Role of Dependence in Chance-constrained and Robust Programming [Role závislosti v úlohách s pravděpodobnostními omezeními a v úlohách robustního programování]," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2007(4), pages 111-120.
    16. Sally G. Arcidiacono & Damiano Rossello, 2022. "A hybrid approach to the discrepancy in financial performance’s robustness," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 5441-5476, November.
    17. Takafumi Kanamori & Akiko Takeda, 2012. "Worst-Case Violation of Sampled Convex Programs for Optimization with Uncertainty," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 171-197, January.
    18. Aharon Ben-Tal & Dimitris Bertsimas & David B. Brown, 2010. "A Soft Robust Model for Optimization Under Ambiguity," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(4-part-2), pages 1220-1234, August.
    19. Steffen Rebennack, 2022. "Data-driven stochastic optimization for distributional ambiguity with integrated confidence region," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 84(2), pages 255-293, October.
    20. Frank Fabozzi & Dashan Huang & Guofu Zhou, 2010. "Robust portfolios: contributions from operations research and finance," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 191-220, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:58:y:2010:i:3:p:595-612. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.