Provides an overview of research done in optimization and related areas, such as optimal control, calculus of variations, and game theory. This work addresses abstract issues of optimization theory and is also concerned with the modeling and computer resolution of specific optimization problems arising in industry and applied sciences.

This study was accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of E- nomics of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main. It was undertaken within the research project The E?ects of Job Creation and Structural Adjustment Schemes on the Participating Individuals, which was conducted by the Institute of Statistics and Econometrics (Empirical E- nomic Research) in cooperation with the Institute for Employment Research in Nuremberg. I have to thank numerous people. First of all my thesis supervisor, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Hujer, for initiating this thesis and providing me with a great...

1. 1 The Area of Research In this thesis, we will investigate the 'market-conform' pricing of newly issued contingent claims. A contingent claim is a derivative whose value at any settlement date is determined by the value of one or more other underlying assets, e. g., forwards, futures, plain-vanilla or exotic options with European or American-style exercise features. Market-conform pricing means that prices of existing actively traded securities are taken as given, and then the set of equivalent martingale measures that are consistent with the initial prices of the traded securities is...

In mathematics generalization is one of the main activities of researchers. It opens up new theoretical horizons and broadens the ?elds of applications. Intensive study of generalized convex objects began about three decades ago when the theory of convex analysis nearly reached its perfect stage of devel- ment with the pioneering contributions of Fenchel, Moreau, Rockafellar and others. The involvement of a number of scholars in the study of generalized convex functions and generalized monotone operators in recent years is due to the quest for more general techniques that are able to describe...

This book investigates bargaining between two agents. Its objective is to present, to extend, and to apply the present state of theoretical knowledge. A wide range of questions will be considered: First of all, will two parties reach efficient agreements? Traditional economic theory gives a generally affirma tive answer for perfectly rational agents, who can carry out complex calcu lations instantaneously and without cost. The book uses innovative methods to analyse the implications of less demanding assumptions. A practical ques tion related to bargaining is: How much power does the design...

There have been many books on Dynamical Astronomy up to now. Many are devoted to Celestial Mechanics, but there are also several books on Stellar and Galactic Dynamics. The first books on stellar dynamics dealt mainly with the statistics of stellar motions (e. g. Smart's "Stellar Dynamics" (1938), or Trumpler and Weaver's "Statistical Astronomy" (1953)). A classical book in this field is Chandrasekhar's "Principles of Stellar Dynamics" (1942) that dealt mainly with the time of relaxation, the solutions of Liouville's equation, and the dynamics of clusters. In the Dover edition of this book...

To all who taught me, and to all who will. Over the past fifteen years the notions of efficiency and sustainability have, more than any others, influenced the academic and public discussion concerning the intertemporal allocation of resources, especially as regards the economics of growth and environment. This treatise formally develops and counterposes these notions by means of the construct of a trajectorial objective, which is here developed, along with its implications, as a natural advance upon the classical scalar objective. In the course of this study it becomes clear that efficiency...

In traditional economics models of perfect competition agent's interactions are all mediated through the market. Interactions are anonymous, global and indirect. This is a powerful model, but we see many instances in which one, and sometimes all, of the previous characteristics fail to hold true. The type of agent you are, or your identity, can affect the type of interaction we have, and most surely the relationship between micro-behaviour and macro-phenomena in non-trivial ways. This book contains a selection of papers presented at the 6th Workshop on Economics with Heterogenous Interacting...

This book analyzes how corporate finance decisions influence strategic competition and innovation of firms in the product market. We consider bank loan financing and venture capital financing. Due to assymetric information, firms must sign special contracts with banks or venture capitalists. The financial contracts, in turn, determine the competitive strategies of firms in the product market. Firms compete in prices for market shares. In addition to that, firms invest in R&D in order to induce product or process innovation. We show that better access to financial resources improves a firm's...