A Sample Approximation Approach for Optimization with Probabilistic Constraints

Abstract. We study approximations of optimization problems with probabilistic constraints in which the original distribution of the underlying random vector is replaced with an empirical distribution obtained from a random sample. We show that such a sample approximation problem with risk level larger than the required risk level will yield a lower bound to the true optimal value with probability approaching one exponentially fast. This leads to an a priori estimate of the sample size required to have high confidence that the sample approximation will yield a lower bound. We then provide conditions under which solving a sample approximation problem with a risk level smaller than the required risk level will…