Perpetual integral functionals of diffusions and their numerical computations

Abstract

In this paper we study perpetual integral functionals of diffusions. Our interest is focused on cases where such functionals can be expressed as first hitting times for some other diffusions. In particular, we generalize the result which connects one-sided functionals of Brownian motion with drift with first hitting times of reflecting diffusions. Interpretating perpetual integral functionals as hitting times allows us to compute numerically their distributions by applying numerical algorithms for hitting times. Hereby, we discuss two approaches: the numerical inversion of the Laplace transform of the first hitting time and the numerical solution of the PDE associated with the distribution function of the first hitting time. For numerical inversion of Laplace tranforms we have implemented the Euler algorithm developed by Abate and Whitt. However, perpetuities lead often to diffusions for which the explicit forms of the Laplace transforms of first hitting times are not available. In such cases, and also otherwise, algorithms for numerical solutions of PDE's can be evoked. In particular, we analyze the Kolmogorov PDE of some diffusions appearing in our work via the Crank-Nicolson scheme.