Stochastic programming is the subfield of mathematical programming that considers optimization in the presence of uncertainty.
During the last four decades a vast quantity of literature on the subject has appeared. Developments in the theory of computational
complexity allow us to establish the theoretical complexity of a variety of stochastic programming problems studied in this
literature. Under the assumption that the stochastic parameters are independently distributed, we show that two-stage stochastic
programming problems are ♯P-hard. Under the same assumption we show that certain multi-stage stochastic programming problems
are PSPACE-hard. The problems we consider are non-standard in that distributions of stochastic parameters in later stages
depend on decisions made in earlier stages.
Supported by the EPSRC grant ``Phase Transitions in the Complexity of Randomised Algorithms'', by the EC IST project RAND-APX,
and by the MRT Network ADONET of the European Community (MRTN-CT-2003-504438).