On approximations of data-driven chance constrained programs over Wasserstein balls
File(s)2206.00231.pdf (631.17 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Zhi, Chen
Kuhn, Daniel
Wiesemann, Wolfram
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Distributionally robust chance constrained programs minimize a deterministic cost function subject to the satisfaction of one or more safety conditions with high probability, given that the probability distribution of the uncertain problem parameters affecting the safety condition(s) is only known to belong to some ambiguity set. We study three popular approximation schemes for distributionally robust chance constrained programs over Wasserstein balls, where the ambiguity set contains all probability distributions within a certain Wasserstein distance to a reference distribution. The first approximation replaces the chance constraint with a bound on the conditional value-at-risk, the second approximation decouples different safety conditions via Bonferroni's inequality, and the third approximation restricts the expected violation of the safety condition(s) so that the chance constraint is satisfied. We show that the conditional value-at-risk approximation can be characterized as a tight convex approximation, which complements earlier findings on classical (non-robust) chance constraints, and we offer a novel interpretation in terms of transportation savings. We also show that the three approximations can perform arbitrarily poorly in data-driven settings, and that they are generally incomparable with each other.
Date Issued
2023-05
Date Acceptance
2023-02-16
Citation
Operations Research Letters, 2023, 51 (3), pp.226-233
ISSN
0167-6377
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
226
End Page
233
Journal / Book Title
Operations Research Letters
Volume
51
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
Copyright © Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167637723000317
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2023-02-25