On Risk-Sensitive Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Abstract

This paper studies a risk-sensitive decision-making problem under uncertainty. It considers a decision-making process that unfolds over a fixed number of stages, in which a decision-maker chooses among multiple alternatives, some of which are deterministic and others stochastic. The decision-maker's cumulative value is updated at each stage, reflecting the outcomes of the chosen alternatives. After formulating this as a stochastic control problem, we derive the necessary optimality conditions and establish sufficiency under convexity assumptions. Two illustrative examples from optimal betting and inventory management are provided to support our theory.