A new integral equation for Brownian stopping problems with finite time horizon

Abstract

For classical finite time horizon stopping problems driven by a Brownian motion \[V(t,x) = \sup_{t\leq\tau\leq0}E_{(t,x)}[g(\tau,W_{\tau})],\] we derive a new class of Fredholm type integral equations for the stopping set. For large problem classes of interest, we show by analytical arguments that the equation uniquely characterizes the stopping boundary of the problem. Regardless of the uniqueness, we use the representation to rigorously find the limit behavior of the stopping boundary close to the terminal time. Interestingly, it turns out that the leading-order coefficient is universal for wide classes of problems. We also discuss how the representation can be used for numerical purposes.