The key convexity calculation is that the random-walk transition operator preserves convex functions. If is convex, then for ,
The pointwise maximum of convex functions is convex as well: the convexity inequality holds for each candidate and is bounded above by the convex combination of the two endpoint maxima. Thus the Bellman recursion proves convexity of a random-walk Snell value function by backward induction from .
To ensure that the functions in this argument are genuinely finite, rather than silently imposing a growth bound on , use integrability of translated convex random-walk rewards. Write for a sum of independent increments with the same law. For , the assumptions give integrability of and . The negative part of a finite convex function is Lipschitz, so translating preserves integrability of the negative part. For the positive part and , if the increment law is unbounded above, take an independent increment and . On that event lies between and , so convexity gives
If increments are bounded above by , then and the same convexity argument between and bounds the positive part by . For , use the corresponding lower-tail argument. Thus every translated reward is integrable for .
For , backward induction also gives the bound
It justifies every convolution in the Bellman recursion at these times, so the arbitrary assignments outside in the previous part are never needed when is convex. The displayed convexity calculation therefore proves that each for is a finite convex function. The chosen is constant and hence convex. This proves the requested conclusion for the deterministic representation under the finite-horizon assumptions.
There is a distinction between this representation and a value function for every possible starting point at time zero. Without translated integrability at the full horizon, the latter may take at unused states. For example, with , and for , the observed reward is integrable, but is infinite for . The constant time-zero extension avoids claiming a globally finite Bellman function under insufficient assumptions. If integrability is assumed for all times of an infinite random walk, the translated-reward argument with one extra time also makes the full time-zero Bellman function finite and convex.