Optimal Inventory Policies when the Demand Distribution is not Known /

This paper analyzes the stochastic inventory control problem when the demand distribution is not known. In contrast to previous Bayesian inventory models, this paper adopts a non-parametric Bayesian approach in which the firm's prior information is characterized by a Dirichlet process prior. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Larson, Erik
Other Authors: Olson, Lars, Sharma, Sunil
Format: Journal
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2000.
Series:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2000/183
Subjects:
Online Access:Full text available on IMF
Description
Summary:This paper analyzes the stochastic inventory control problem when the demand distribution is not known. In contrast to previous Bayesian inventory models, this paper adopts a non-parametric Bayesian approach in which the firm's prior information is characterized by a Dirichlet process prior. This provides considerable freedom in the specification of prior information about demand and it permits the accommodation of fixed order costs. As information on the demand distribution accumulates, optimal history-dependent (s,S) rules are shown to converge to an (s,S) rule that is optimal when the underlying demand distribution is known.
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Physical Description:1 online resource (24 pages)
Format:Mode of access: Internet
ISSN:1018-5941
Access:Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students