On the maximum of a stationary independent increment process

Abstract

A stationary independent increment process is the continuous time analogue of the discrete random walk, and, as such, has a wide variety of applications. In this paper we consider M(t), the maximum value that such a process attains by time t. By using renewal theoretic methods we obtain results about M(t). In particular we show that if μ, the mean drift of the process, is positive, then M(t)/t converges to μ, and E[M(t + h) – M(t)] → hμ.