Reinforcement Learning for optimal dividend problem under diffusion model

Abstract: In this paper, we study the optimal dividend problem under the continuous time diffusion model with the dividend rate being restricted in a given finite interval. Unlike the standard literature, we shall particularly be interested in the case when the parameters (e.g. drift and diffusion coefficients) of the model are not specified so that the optimal control cannot be explicitly determined. We therefore follow the recently developed method via the Reinforcement Learning (RL) to find the optimal strategy. Specifically, we shall design a corresponding RL-type entropy-regularized exploratory control problem, which randomize the control actions, and balance the exploitation and exploration. We shall first carry out a theoretical analysis of the new relaxed control problem and prove that the value function is the unique bounded classical solution to the corresponding HJB equation. We will then use a policy improvement argument, along with policy evaluation devices (e.g., Temporal Difference (TD)-based algorithm and Martingale Loss (ML)-algorithms) to construct approximating sequences of the optimal strategy. We present some numerical results using different parametrization families for the cost functional to illustrate the effectiveness of the approximation schemes.