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As mentioned in the introduction, the objective of this work has been to get a more realistic understanding of economic decision making processes by adopting an interdisciplinary approach which takes into consideration at the same time economic and psychological issues. The research in particular has been focused on the psychological concept of categorization, which in the standard economic theory has received until now no attention, and on its implications for decision making. The three experimental studies conducted in this work provide empirical evidence that individuals don not behave according to the perfect rationality and maximization assumptions which underly the SEUT, but rather as bounded rational satisfiers who try to simplify the decision problems they face through the process of categorization...

Political and economic institutions are typically governed by committees that face the challenge to reconcile the preferences of their members. How should decision rules be designed to generate fair and sustainable agreements, for example if committee members represent groups of different sizes? This book uses game-theoretic concepts and models to address the issue of political decision-making processes. In addition to providing a survey on basic game-theoretic tools in the analysis of political decisions, the author looks at specific issues such as two-tiered voting systems or the influence of lobbyists on legislative committees, and shows how the models can be applied to real-world contexts such as the EU decision-making institutions.

Political and economic institutions are typically governed by committees that face the challenge to reconcile the preferences of their members. How should decision rules be designed to generate fair and sustainable agreements, for example if committee members represent groups of different sizes? This book uses game-theoretic concepts and models to address the issue of political decision-making processes. In addition to providing a survey on basic game-theoretic tools in the analysis of political decisions, the author looks at specific issues such as two-tiered voting systems or the influence of lobbyists on legislative committees, and shows how the models can be applied to real-world contexts such as the EU decision-making institutions. TOC:Introduction - Games and Political Decisions - Committees as Representative Institutions - Robust Equal Representation - Committees and Lobby Coalition Formation.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of several federal agencies responsible for protecting Americans against significant risks to human health and the environment. As part of that mission, EPA estimates the nature, magnitude, and likelihood of risks to human health and the environment; identifies the potential regulatory actions that will mitigate those risks and protect public health1 and the environment; and uses that information to decide on appropriate regulatory action. Uncertainties, both qualitative and quantitative, in the data and analyses on which these decisions are based enter into the process at each step. As a result, the informed identification and use of the uncertainties inherent in the process is an essential feature of environmental decision making. EPA requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convene a committee to provide guidance to its decision makers and their partners in states and localities on approaches to managing risk in different contexts when uncertainty is present. It also sought guidance on how information on uncertainty should be presented to help risk managers make sound decisions and to increase transparency in its communications with the public about those decisions. Given that its charge is not limited to human health risk assessment and includes broad questions about managing risks and decision making, in this report the committee examines the analysis of uncertainty in those other areas in addition to human health risks. Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty explains the statement of task and summarizes the findings of the committee."--Publisher's description

Publisher's description: ``Describes basic concepts of rational decision making and decision analysis to the reader -- offers insights that help to systematically analyze decision making problems in professional and private life and helps the reader to come up with a problem solution based on a higher degree of rationality -- updating/inclusion of current research, in-depth discussion of selected topics, additional exercises/case studies. This textbook conveys methods that can improve decision making processes in various fields such as economics, politics, and medicine as well as in personal life. Areas of focus are decision making under conflicting objectives, decision making under risk and uncertainty, decision making with incomplete information about individual preferences or probabilities, and the consideration of time preferences. Special emphasis is placed on the procedures and concepts applicability. Explicit sample applications show the methods benefit for a wide area of decision making problems. Exercises from daily life make it easy for the reader to understand the key insights from decision analysis."" \par This English edition corresponds to the 5th German one. Hence this book is close to completeness. Yet in this reviewer's opinion there are two comments: First a section with hints on the problems for solution is needed. Second a comparison with decision making in animals may be useful since recently [{\it D. Sumpter}, Collective animal behavior. Princeton Univ. Press (2010)] it was shown that collective animal behavior is highly efficient.

"Making Better Decisions introduces readers to some of the principal aspects of decision theory, and examines how these might lead us to make better decisions.[bullet] Introduces readers to key aspects of decision theory and examines how they might help us make better decisions[bullet] Presentation of material encourages readers to imagine a situation and make a decision or a judgment[bullet] Offers a broad coverage of the subject including major insights from several sub-disciplines: microeconomic theory, decision theory, game theory, social choice, statistics, psychology, and philosophy[bullet] Explains these insights informally in a language that has minimal mathematical notation or jargon, even when describing and interpreting mathematical theorems[bullet] Critically assesses the theory presented within the text, as well as some of its critiques[bullet] Includes a web resource for teachers and students"--