From the Optimal Singular Stochastic Control to the Optimal Stopping for Regime-Switching Processes

Abstract

This work generalizes the connection between the optimal singular stochastic control problem and the optimal stopping problem for regime-switching processes. Via the optimal singular stochastic control, the optimal stopping time and the continuation region are characterized. Moreover, we prove the existence of optimal singular stochastic control for a finite horizon singular control problem with the cost function containing the terminal cost. We prove it directly by the compactification method, which is based on an elaborate application of the properties of probability measures over the càdlàg space. Such a problem was left open in Haussmann and Suo [SIAM J. Control Optim., 33 (1995), pp. 916–936] and [SIAM J. Control Optim., 33 (1995), pp. 937–959]). In addition, our compactification method can remove the convexity condition on the coefficients used in Dufour and Miller [SIAM J. Control Optim., 43 (2004), pp. 708–730].