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Optimal stopping for Levy processes with polynomial rewards

Explicit solution of an infinite horizon optimal stopping problem for a Levy processes with a polynomial reward function is given, in terms of the overall supremum of the process, when the solution of the problem is one-sided. The results are obtained via the generalization of known results about the averaging function associated with the problem. This averaging function can be directly computed in case of polynomial rewards. To illustrate this result, examples for general quadratic and cubic polynomials are discussed in case the process is Brownian motion, and the optimal stopping problem for a quartic polynomial and a Kou's process is solved.