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On the best-choice problem when the number of observations is random
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 July 2016
Abstract
We consider the problem of maximizing the probability of choosing the largest from a sequence of N observations when N is a bounded random variable. The present paper gives a necessary and sufficient condition, based on the distribution of N, for the optimal stopping rule to have a particularly simple form: what Rasmussen and Robbins (1975) call an s(r) rule. A second result indicates that optimal stopping rules for this problem can, with one restriction, take virtually any form.
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- Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1983
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