On non-negative solutions of SDDEs with an application to CARMA processes

Abstract

This note provides a simple sufficient condition ensuring that solutions of stochastic delay differential equations (SDDEs) driven by subordinators are non-negative. While, to the best of our knowledge, no simple non-negativity conditions are available in the context of SDDEs, we compare our result to the literature within the subclass of invertible continuous-time ARMA (CARMA) processes. In particular, we analyze why our condition cannot be necessary for CARMA($p,q$) processes when $p=2$, and we show that there are various situations where our condition applies while existing results do not as soon as $p\geq 3$. Finally, we extend the result to a multidimensional setting.