$C^{1,\alpha}$ regularity of variational problems with a convexity constraint

Abstract

In this paper, we establish the interior $C^{1,\alpha}$ regularity of minimizers of a class of functionals with a convexity constraint, which includes the principal-agent problems studied by Figalli-Kim-McCann (\textit{J. Econom. Theory} \textbf{146} (2011), no. 2, 454-478). The $C^{1,1}$ regularity was previously proved by Caffarelli-Lions in an unpublished note when the cost is quadratic, and recently extended to the case where the cost is uniformly convex with respect to a general preference function by McCann-Rankin-Zhang(\textit{arXiv:2303.04937v3}). Our main result does not require the uniform convexity assumption on the cost function. In particular, we show that the solutions to the principal-agent problems with $q$-power cost are $C^{1,\frac{1}{q-1}}$ when $q > 2$ and $C^{1,1}$ when $1<q\leq 2$. Examples can show that this regularity is optimal when $q\geq 2$.