Abstract We investigate branching processes with immigration in a random environment. Using Goldie’s implicit renewal theory we prove that under a generalized Cramér condition the stationary distribution of such processes has a power law tail. We further show how several methods familiar in the extreme value theory provide a natural and elegant path to their mathematical analysis. In particular, we rely on the point processes theory and the concept of tail process to determine the limiting distribution for the corresponding extremes and partial sums. Since Kesten, Kozlov and Spitzer seminal 1975 paper, it is known that one class of these processes has a close relation with random walks in a random environment. Even in that well studied context, the method we follow yields new results. For instance, we are able to i) move away from the conditions used by Kesten et al., ii) provide precise form of the limiting distribution in their main theorem, and iii) characterize the long term behavior of the worst traps a random walk in random environment encounters when drifting away from the origin.
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