The exotic options that are examined in this thesis have a combination of non-standard characteristics which can be found in shout, multi-callable, pathdependent and Bermudan options. These options are called reset options. A reset option is an option which allows the holder to reset, one or more times, certain terms of the contract based on pre-specified rules during the life of the option. Overall in this thesis, an attempt has been made to tackle the modeling challenges that arise from the exotic properties of the reset option embedded in segregated funds. Initially, the relevant literature was reviewed and the lack of published work, advanced enough to deal with the complexities of the reset option, was identified. Hence, there appears to be a clear and urgent need to have more sophisticated approaches which will model the reset option. The reset option on the maturity guarantee of segregated funds is formulated as a non-stationary finite horizon Markov Decision Process. The returns from the underlying asset are modeled using a discrete time approximation of the lognormal model. An Optimal Exercise Boundary of the reset option is derived where a threshold value is depicted such that if the value of the underlying asset price exceeds it then it is optimal for the policyholder to reset his maturity guarantee. Otherwise, it is optimal for the policyholder to rollover his maturity guarantee. It is noteworthy that the model is able to depict the Optimal Exercise Boundary of not just the first but of all the segregated fund contracts which can be issued throughout the planning horizon of the policyholder. The main finding of the model is that as the segregated fund contract approaches its maturity, the threshold value in the Optimal Exercise Boundary increases. However, in the last period before the maturity of the segregated fund, the threshold value decreases. The reason for this is that if the reset option is not exercised it will expire worthless. The model is then extended to re ect on the characteristics of the range of products which are traded in the market. Firstly, the issuer of the segregated fund contract is allowed to charge a management fee to the policyholder. The effect from incorporating this fee is that the policyholder requires a higher return in order to optimally reset his maturity guarantee while the total value of the segregated fund is diminished. Secondly, the maturity guarantee becomes a function of the number of times that the reset option has been exercised. The effect is that the policyholder requires a higher return in order to choose to reset his maturity guarantee while the total value of the segregated fund is diminished. Thirdly, the policyholder is allowed to reset the maturity guarantee at any point in time within each year from the start of the planning horizon, but only once. The effect is that the total value of the segregated fund is increased since the policyholder may lock in higher market gains as he has more reset decision points. In response to the well documented deficiencies of the lognormal model to capture the jumps experienced by stock markets, extensions were built which incorporate such jumps in the original model. The effect from incorporating such jumps is that the policyholder requires a higher return in order to choose to reset his maturity guarantee while the total value of the segregated fund is diminished due to the adverse effect of the negative jumps on the value of the underlying asset.

Network coding allows each node in a network to perform some coding operations on the data packets and improve the overall throughput of communication. However, network coding cannot be done unless there are enough packets to be coded so at times it may be advantageous to wait for packets to arrive. We consider a scenario in which two wireless nodes each with its own buffer communicate via a single access point using network coding. The access point first pairs each data packet being sent from each node and then performs the network coding operation. Packets arriving at the access point that are unable to be paired are instead loaded into one of the two buffers at the access point. In the case where one of the buffers is empty and the other is not network coding is not possible. When this happens the access point must either wait for a network coding opportunity, or transmit the unpaired packet without coding. Delaying packet transmission is associated with an increased waiting cost but also allows for an increase in the overall efficiency of wireless spectrum usage, thus a decrease in packet transmission cost. Conversely, sending packets un-coded is associated with a decrease in waiting cost but also a decrease in the overall efficiency of the wireless spectrum usage. Hence, there is a trade-off between decreasing packet delay time, and increasing the efficiency of the wireless spectrum usage. We show that the optimal waiting policy for this system with respect to total cost, under phase-type packet arrivals, is to have a separate threshold for the buffer size that is dependent on the current phase of each arrival. We then show that the solution to this optimization problem can be obtained by treating it as a double ended push-out queueing theory problem. We develop a new technique to keep track of the packet waiting time and the number of packets waiting in the two ended push-out queue. We use the resulting queueing model to resolve the optimal threshold policy and then analyze the performance of the system using numerical approach. / October 2016

<p>It has become increasingly common for a city or region to use sporting and media events to promote themselves. But what is behind these events? What kind of organisation is necessary to plan and run them? In the summer of 2009 the internationally known Volvo Ocean Race will arrive in Stockholm. The race is eight months long and will be hosted in Stockholm for almost the whole of June. The City of Stockholm is behind the event and Stockholm’s marinas will be responsible for making sure that everything runs smoothly and on schedule. Hosting this big event will have an impact on the citizens of Stockholm in many ways. The purpose of this study is to examine the political decision-making behind the event and the first part of the year of planning and preparations that have lead up to it.</p><p>The study is based on interviews with the people responsible for the planning of the event and one politician that were involved in the decision-making. The method that is used in the study is Grounded Theory, which the authors believe has been valuable in this case. The implication of using this method is that the authors have been able to look more closely into the planning of the event without being too influenced by earlier learned theories. The method also can help us to see patterns in the study that otherwise could be missed. In the end of this study we look at previous research and give suggestions for future studies. The authors hope that this study can give inspiration to other researchers in this growing and interesting field.</p>

It has become increasingly common for a city or region to use sporting and media events to promote themselves. But what is behind these events? What kind of organisation is necessary to plan and run them? In the summer of 2009 the internationally known Volvo Ocean Race will arrive in Stockholm. The race is eight months long and will be hosted in Stockholm for almost the whole of June. The City of Stockholm is behind the event and Stockholm’s marinas will be responsible for making sure that everything runs smoothly and on schedule. Hosting this big event will have an impact on the citizens of Stockholm in many ways. The purpose of this study is to examine the political decision-making behind the event and the first part of the year of planning and preparations that have lead up to it. The study is based on interviews with the people responsible for the planning of the event and one politician that were involved in the decision-making. The method that is used in the study is Grounded Theory, which the authors believe has been valuable in this case. The implication of using this method is that the authors have been able to look more closely into the planning of the event without being too influenced by earlier learned theories. The method also can help us to see patterns in the study that otherwise could be missed. In the end of this study we look at previous research and give suggestions for future studies. The authors hope that this study can give inspiration to other researchers in this growing and interesting field.

<p>Throughout the years more and more charitable organisations have appeared and the competition between them has increased. This has forced the charities to use more marketing strategies in their work in order to strengthen their competitiveness. </p><p>Research in philanthropy in terms of economy and marketing has been neglected in Sweden and the research that is done today is mainly focused on why individuals donate to charity. A donation, according to the writers of this thesis, has been seen as an economical activity and can therefore be explained and understood through economical models and theories. This thesis aims to see <em>how </em>a contributor to charity makes the decision to donate money, consequently see how the donation decision process actually works from a theoretical model of a buying decision process from marketing literature. </p><p>The purpose of this thesis is therefore to from a buying decision process concerning products describe the donation decision process for contributors to charity. By achieving this purpose the writers aim to compare if a donation decision process go through certain steps similar to a buying decision process. This is expected to give a theory-testing contribution to science where the chosen theoretical model for a buying decision process is strengthened. </p><p>The thesis is based on a qualitative method of research to achieve this purpose where the main information comes from semi-structured interviews with three charities and ten individuals who all contribute to charity.</p><p>From the gathered empirical data and the following analysis, several conclusions are presented in the thesis based on earlier research questions. The purpose of the thesis is considered to have been fulfilled, the chosen theory of buying decision process is considered to be fully proficient to explain a donation decision process. A donation to charity is, according to the thesis, considered as an impulse decision with low involvement that has strong emotional factors, such as motivation, which influences the decision. The writers believe that this thesis could be useful to other researchers within this field of science, or charities searching for insight into individual’s donation decision process. </p> / <p>Genom åren har allt fler hjälporganisationer etablerats på marknaden och konkurrensen mellan dem ökar. Detta har inneburit att hjälporganisationerna har blivit tvingade att använda marknadsföringsstrategier i större utsträckning än tidigare för att stärka sin konkurrenskraft. </p><p>Forskningen inom filantropi i samband med ekonomi och marknadsföring är eftersatt i Sverige och den forskning som sker idag är främst inriktad på varför individer donerar pengar till välgörenhet. Denna uppsats vill undersöka <em>hur </em>en bidragsgivare kommer fram till beslutet att donera pengar.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen blir därför att utifrån en köpbeslutsprocess gällande produkter beskriva donationsbeslutsprocessen för bidragsgivare. Genom detta syfte vill uppsatsförfattarna se hur donationsbeslutsprocessen går till och jämföra den utifrån en modell för köpbeslutsprocesser som finns inom marknadsföringsteorin. Detta förväntas ge ett teoriprövande bidrag till forskningen och stärka och vidga användningsområdet för den valda modellen för köpbeslutsprocessen. </p><p>För att uppnå detta syfte har uppsatsen en kvalitativ metod där den primära källan för information är semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre stycken hjälporganisationer och tio stycken bidragsgivare. Utifrån empirin och den följande analysen presenteras ett antal slutsatser. </p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen ansågs vara uppfyllt då den valda teorin om köpbeslutsprocessen väl kunde förklara en donationsbeslutsprocess. En donation enligt uppsatsen är ett impulsbeslut med låg involvering trots att motiven bakom är av emotionell natur. Det låga engagemanget grundar sig i att bidragsbranschen ses som homogen. Tilliten spelar stor roll, men är komplex för bidragsgivarna och många är väldigt känsliga för medierapportering. </p><p>Det förväntade bidraget till forskning kan därmed sägas ha uppnåtts, marknadsföringteorin om köpbeslutprocessen kan användas för att beskriva en donationsbeslutsprocess. Uppsatsförfattarna anser att denna uppsats kan komma till användning för andra forskare inom området eller för hjälporganisationer som vill få insikt i bidragsgivarnas beslutsprocess.</p>

Throughout the years more and more charitable organisations have appeared and the competition between them has increased. This has forced the charities to use more marketing strategies in their work in order to strengthen their competitiveness.  Research in philanthropy in terms of economy and marketing has been neglected in Sweden and the research that is done today is mainly focused on why individuals donate to charity. A donation, according to the writers of this thesis, has been seen as an economical activity and can therefore be explained and understood through economical models and theories. This thesis aims to see how a contributor to charity makes the decision to donate money, consequently see how the donation decision process actually works from a theoretical model of a buying decision process from marketing literature.  The purpose of this thesis is therefore to from a buying decision process concerning products describe the donation decision process for contributors to charity. By achieving this purpose the writers aim to compare if a donation decision process go through certain steps similar to a buying decision process. This is expected to give a theory-testing contribution to science where the chosen theoretical model for a buying decision process is strengthened.  The thesis is based on a qualitative method of research to achieve this purpose where the main information comes from semi-structured interviews with three charities and ten individuals who all contribute to charity. From the gathered empirical data and the following analysis, several conclusions are presented in the thesis based on earlier research questions. The purpose of the thesis is considered to have been fulfilled, the chosen theory of buying decision process is considered to be fully proficient to explain a donation decision process. A donation to charity is, according to the thesis, considered as an impulse decision with low involvement that has strong emotional factors, such as motivation, which influences the decision. The writers believe that this thesis could be useful to other researchers within this field of science, or charities searching for insight into individual’s donation decision process. / Genom åren har allt fler hjälporganisationer etablerats på marknaden och konkurrensen mellan dem ökar. Detta har inneburit att hjälporganisationerna har blivit tvingade att använda marknadsföringsstrategier i större utsträckning än tidigare för att stärka sin konkurrenskraft.  Forskningen inom filantropi i samband med ekonomi och marknadsföring är eftersatt i Sverige och den forskning som sker idag är främst inriktad på varför individer donerar pengar till välgörenhet. Denna uppsats vill undersöka hur en bidragsgivare kommer fram till beslutet att donera pengar. Syftet med uppsatsen blir därför att utifrån en köpbeslutsprocess gällande produkter beskriva donationsbeslutsprocessen för bidragsgivare. Genom detta syfte vill uppsatsförfattarna se hur donationsbeslutsprocessen går till och jämföra den utifrån en modell för köpbeslutsprocesser som finns inom marknadsföringsteorin. Detta förväntas ge ett teoriprövande bidrag till forskningen och stärka och vidga användningsområdet för den valda modellen för köpbeslutsprocessen.  För att uppnå detta syfte har uppsatsen en kvalitativ metod där den primära källan för information är semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre stycken hjälporganisationer och tio stycken bidragsgivare. Utifrån empirin och den följande analysen presenteras ett antal slutsatser.  Syftet med uppsatsen ansågs vara uppfyllt då den valda teorin om köpbeslutsprocessen väl kunde förklara en donationsbeslutsprocess. En donation enligt uppsatsen är ett impulsbeslut med låg involvering trots att motiven bakom är av emotionell natur. Det låga engagemanget grundar sig i att bidragsbranschen ses som homogen. Tilliten spelar stor roll, men är komplex för bidragsgivarna och många är väldigt känsliga för medierapportering.  Det förväntade bidraget till forskning kan därmed sägas ha uppnåtts, marknadsföringteorin om köpbeslutprocessen kan användas för att beskriva en donationsbeslutsprocess. Uppsatsförfattarna anser att denna uppsats kan komma till användning för andra forskare inom området eller för hjälporganisationer som vill få insikt i bidragsgivarnas beslutsprocess.

Les Markov Decision Process (MDP) sont des systèmes finis probabilistes avec à la fois des choix aléatoires et des stratégies, et sont ainsi reconnus comme de puissants outils pour modéliser les interactions entre un contrôleur et les réponses aléatoires de l'environment. Mathématiquement, un MDP peut être vu comme un jeu stochastique à un joueur et demi où le contrôleur choisit à chaque tour une action et l'environment répond en choisissant un successeur selon une distribution de probabilités fixée.Il existe deux incomparables représentations du comportement d'un MDP une fois les choix de la stratégie fixés.Dans la représentation classique, un MDP est un générateur de séquences d'états, appelées state-outcome; les conditions gagnantes du joueur sont ainsi exprimées comme des ensembles de séquences désirables d'états qui sont visités pendant le jeu, e.g. les conditions de Borel telles que l'accessibilité. La complexité des problèmes de décision ainsi que la capacité mémoire requise des stratégies gagnantes pour les conditions dites state-outcome ont été déjà fortement étudiées.Depuis peu, les MDPs sont également considérés comme des générateurs de séquences de distributions de probabilités sur les états, appelées distribution-outcome. Nous introduisons des conditions de synchronisation sur les distributions-outcome, qui intuitivement demandent à ce que la masse de probabilité s'accumule dans un (ensemble d') état, potentiellement de façon asymptotique.Une distribution de probabilités est p-synchrone si la masse de probabilité est d'au moins p dans un état; et la séquence de distributions de probabilités est toujours, éventuellement, faiblement, ou fortement p-synchrone si, respectivement toutes, certaines, infiniment plusieurs ou toutes sauf un nombre fini de distributions dans la séquence sont p-synchrones.Pour chaque type de synchronisation, un MDP peut être(i) assurément gagnant si il existe une stratégie qui génère une séquence 1-synchrone;(ii) presque-assurément gagnant si il existe une stratégie qui génère une séquence (1-epsilon)-synchrone et cela pour tout epsilon strictement positif;(iii) asymptotiquement gagnant si pour tout epsilon strictement positif, il existe une stratégie produisant une séquence (1-epsilon)-synchrone.Nous considérons le problème consistant à décider si un MDP est gagnant, pour chaque type de synchronisation et chaque mode gagnant: nous établissons les limites supérieures et inférieures de la complexité de ces problèmes ainsi que la capacité mémoire requise pour une stratégie gagnante optimale.En outre, nous étudions les problèmes de synchronisation pour les automates probabilistes (PAs) qui sont en fait des instances de MDP où les contrôleurs sont restreint à utiliser uniquement des stratégies-mots; c'est à dire qu'ils n'ont pas la possibilité d'observer l'historique de l'exécution du système et ne peuvent connaitre que le nombre de choix effectués jusque là. Les langages synchrones d'un PA sont donc l'ensemble des stratégies-mots synchrones: nous établissons la complexité des problèmes des langages synchrones vides et universels pour chaque mode gagnant.Nous répercutons nos résultats obtenus pour les problèmes de synchronisation sur les MDPs et PAs aux jeux tour à tour à deux joueurs ainsi qu'aux automates finis non-déterministes. En plus de nos résultats principaux, nous établissons de nouveaux résultats de complexité sur les automates finis alternants avec des alphabets à une lettre. Enfin, nous étudions plusieurs variations de synchronisation sur deux instances de systèmes infinis que sont les automates temporisés et pondérés. / Markov decision processes (MDPs) are finite-state probabilistic systems with bothstrategic and random choices, hence well-established to model the interactions between a controller and its randomly responding environment.An MDP can be mathematically viewed as a one and half player stochastic game played in rounds when the controller chooses an action,and the environment chooses a successor according to a fixedprobability distribution.There are two incomparable views on the behavior of an MDP, when thestrategic choices are fixed. In the traditional view, an MDP is a generator of sequence of states, called the state-outcome; the winning condition of the player is thus expressed as a set of desired sequences of states that are visited during the game, e.g. Borel condition such as reachability.The computational complexity of related decision problems and memory requirement of winning strategies for the state-outcome conditions are well-studied.Recently, MDPs have been viewed as generators of sequences of probability distributions over states, calledthe distribution-outcome. We introduce synchronizing conditions defined on distribution-outcomes,which intuitively requires that the probability mass accumulates insome (group of) state(s), possibly in limit.A probability distribution is p-synchronizing if the probabilitymass is at least p in some state, anda sequence of probability distributions is always, eventually,weakly, or strongly p-synchronizing if respectively all, some, infinitely many, or all but finitely many distributions in the sequence are p-synchronizing.For each synchronizing mode, an MDP can be (i) sure winning if there is a strategy that produces a 1-synchronizing sequence; (ii) almost-sure winning if there is a strategy that produces a sequence that is, for all epsilon > 0, a (1-epsilon)-synchronizing sequence; (iii) limit-sure winning if for all epsilon > 0, there is a strategy that produces a (1-epsilon)-synchronizing sequence.We consider the problem of deciding whether an MDP is winning, for each synchronizing and winning mode: we establish matching upper and lower complexity bounds of the problems, as well as the memory requirementfor optimal winning strategies.As a further contribution, we study synchronization in probabilistic automata (PAs), that are kind of MDPs where controllers are restricted to use only word-strategies; i.e. no ability to observe the history of the system execution, but the number of choices made so far.The synchronizing languages of a PA is then the set of all synchronizing word-strategies: we establish the computational complexity of theemptiness and universality problems for all synchronizing languages in all winning modes.We carry over results for synchronizing problems from MDPs and PAs to two-player turn-based games and non-deterministic finite state automata. Along with the main results, we establish new complexity results foralternating finite automata over a one-letter alphabet.In addition, we study different variants of synchronization for timed andweighted automata, as two instances of infinite-state systems.

In multi-agent Markov Decision Processes, a controllable agent must perform optimal planning in a dynamic and uncertain environment that includes another unknown and uncontrollable agent. Given a task specification for the controllable agent, its ability to complete the task can be impeded by an inaccurate model of the intent and behaviors of other agents. In this work, we introduce an active policy inference algorithm that allows a controllable agent to infer a policy of the environmental agent through interaction. Active policy inference is data-efficient and is particularly useful when data are time-consuming or costly to obtain. The controllable agent synthesizes an exploration-exploitation policy that incorporates the knowledge learned about the environment's behavior. Whenever possible, the agent also tries to elicit behavior from the other agent to improve the accuracy of the environmental model. This is done by mapping the uncertainty in the environmental model to a bonus reward, which helps elicit the most informative exploration, and allows the controllable agent to return to its main task as fast as possible. Experiments demonstrate the improved sample efficiency of active learning and the convergence of the policy for the controllable agents.

This thesis is about the dynamic generalisation of continuous action spaces in reinforcement learning problems. The standard Reinforcement Learning (RL) account provides a principled and comprehensive means of optimising a scalar reward signal in a Markov Decision Process. However, the theory itself does not directly address the imperative issue of generalisation which naturally arises as a consequence of large or continuous state and action spaces. A current thrust of research is aimed at fusing the generalisation capabilities of supervised (and unsupervised) learning techniques with the RL theory. An example par excellence is Tesauro’s TD-Gammon. Although much effort has gone into researching ways to represent and generalise over the input space, much less attention has been paid to the action space. This thesis first considers the motivation for learning real-valued actions, and then proposes a set of key properties desirable in any candidate algorithm addressing generalisation of both input and action spaces. These properties include: Provision of adaptive and online generalisation, adherence to the standard theory with a central focus on estimating expected reward, provision for real-valued states and actions, and full support for a real-valued discounted reward signal. Of particular interest are issues pertaining to robustness in non-stationary environments, scalability, and efficiency for real-time learning in applications such as robotics. Since exploring the action space is discovered to be a potentially costly process, the system should also be flexible enough to enable maximum reuse of learned actions. A new approach is proposed which succeeds for the first time in addressing all of the key issues identified. The algorithm, which is based on the ubiquitous self-organising map, is analysed and compared with other techniques including those based on the backpropagation algorithm. The investigation uncovers some important implications of the differences between these two particular approaches with respect to RL. In particular, the distributed representation of the multi-layer perceptron is judged to be something of a double-edged sword offering more sophisticated and more scalable generalising power, but potentially causing problems in dynamic or non-equiprobable environments, and tasks involving a highly varying input-output mapping. The thesis concludes that the self-organising map can be used in conjunction with current RL theory to provide real-time dynamic representation and generalisation of continuous action spaces. The proposed model is shown to be reliable in non-stationary, unpredictable and noisy environments and judged to be unique in addressing and satisfying a number of desirable properties identified as important to a large class of RL problems.

Background and problem: The industry of today is changing and many firms chose to internationalize due to the increased price competition. It is often cheaper to produce in a low cost country and sometimes it can be strategic to produce there in order to gain market shares. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the decision proc-ess when manufacturing firms choose to locate production abroad. Theoretical framework: Decisions have different grade of rationality and complexity. To make a decision to establish abroad is a complicated decision, which often involves many people, requires time and information in order to avoid uncertainty. The people involved in the process need to be able to both gather and use the information in order to do as good decision as possible. Many factors affect the decision concerning foreign establishment, the most occurring are low costs, better market structure and the growth potential in the area of interest. Empirical findings: ABA Group, Balton AB, ITAB Shop Concept and Stilexo Industry AB are the four firms in which the decision process is investigated. They have all experienced increasing competition in the more globalized market, which has forced them to establish abroad in order to survive. Analysis and final discussion: For all firms investigated, the decision to establish abroad was influenced by availability of information and time, the people involved and their ability to use the information. All these factors are affected by uncertainties, from which the firms not completely can protect themselves. To do as good decision as possible the firms need to be careful and consider all factors that influence the outcome.