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I. Preference Orderings and Utility Theory -- 1. Relational Systems -- 2. Preference Relations -- 3. Some Remarks on Utility Theory -- 4. Linear Inequalities -- II. Ordinal Utility -- 1. Some Classical Representation Theorems -- 2. Lexicographic Utility -- 3. Utility Theories with Respect to n?-Sets -- 4. Ultraproducts and Ultrapowers -- 5. Approximating an r*-Valued Utility Function by a Real Valued Function -- 6. Non-Standard Utility Functions Always Exist -- 7. Utility Functions for Partial Orderings -- III. On Numerical Relational Systems -- 1. First-Order Languages -- 2. Some Preliminary Considerations -- 3. Universal and Homogeneous Relational Systems -- 4. Saturated Relational Systems -- IV. Utility Theories for More Structured Empirical Data -- 1. Some Remarks -- 2. The Empirical Status of Axioms -- 3. Utility Theories which are Axiomatizable in an Ordinary First Order Language -- 4. Extensive Utility -- 5. Conjoint Measurement of Utilities -- 6. On Certain Mean Systems -- V. On Utility Spaces, The Theory of Games and the Realization of Comparative Probability Relations -- 1. A Generalization of the Von Neumann/Morgenstern Utility Theory -- 2. Non-Standard Utilities in Game Theory -- 3. Some Aspects of the Realization of Comparative Probability Relations -- Appendix I. Ordinal and Cardinal Numbers -- Appendix II. Some Basic Facts about Filters and Ultrafilters -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects.

1. Basic concepts and principles of political economy / Friedrich Benedikt Wilhelm von Hermann -- 2. Price determination through desire or demand / Friedrich Benedikt Wilhelm von Hermann -- 3. Extract from the second letter to Adolphe Quetelet / Karl Heinrich Rau -- 4. The valuation of national wealth (1841) / Karl Heinrich Rau -- 5. Bases of price determination (1841) -- Karl Heinrich Rau -- 6. The valuation of national wealth (1847) / Karl Heinrich Rau -- 7. The national economics of the present and future / Bruno Hildebrand -- 8. The theory of value : for the jubilee of the Imperial University of Dorpat 12-13 December 1852 : commemorative volume of the department of history and philology -- Eberhard Friedlander -- 9. The theory of value in national economics / Karl Knies -- 10. Value / Wilhelm Roscher -- 11. The ethical side of the theory of value in national economics / Albert Eberhard Friedrich Schaffle -- 12. The chapter on value / Otto Michaelis -- 13. On the theory of value / Hermann Roesler.

The main purpose of the Handbook of Utility Theory is to make more widely available some recent developments in the area. The editors selected a list of topics that seemed ripe enough to be covered by review articles. Then they invited contributions from researchers whose expert work had come to their attention. So the list of topics and contributors is largely the editors' responsibility. Each contributor's chapter has been refereed, and revised according to the referees' remarks. Whereas Volume I of the Handbook of Utility Theory is largely concentrated on basic theory, the present volume is concerned with extensions and applications to other branches of economic theory. Taken together, these first two volumes contain all the purely theoretical material that the editors planned to cover. The chapters on experimental and empirical research on utility and the chapters on the history of utility theory will appear in Volume III

Economic analysis of choice under uncertainty has been dominated by the expected utility (EU) model, yet the EU model has never been without critics. Psychologists accumulated evidence that individual choices under uncertainty were inconsistent with the predictions of the EU model. Applied work in areas such as finance was dominated by the simpler mean-variance analysis. In the 1980s this skepticism was dispelled as a number of generalizations of EU were proposed, most of which were capable of explaining evidence inconsistent with EU, while preserving transitivity and dominance. Generalized expected utility is now a flourishing subfield of economics, with dozens of competing models and considerable literature exploring their theoretical properties and comparing their empirical performance. But the EU model remains the principal tool for the analysis of choice under uncertainty. There is a view that generalized models are too difficult to handle or incapable of generating sharp results. This creates a need to show that the new models can be used in the kinds of economic analysis for which EU has been used, and that they can yield new and interesting results. This book meets this need by describing one of the most popular generalized models -- the rank-dependent expected utility model (RDEU), also known as anticipated utility, EU with rank-dependent preferences, the dual theory of choice under uncertainty, and simply as rank-dependent utility. As the many names indicate, the model has been approached in many ways by many scientists and for this reason, consideration of a single model sheds light on many of the concerns that have motivated the development of generalized utility models. The popularity of the RDEU model rests on its simplicity and tractability. The standard tools of analysis developed for EU theory may be applied to the RDEU model, but since RDEU admits behavior inconsistent with EU, the field of potential applications is widened. As such, the RDEU model is not as much a competitor to EU as an extension based on less restrictive assumptions

The book consists of three parts: The first part reviews the development in axiomatic utility theory under risk since the axiomatization of expected utility by von Neumann and Morgenstein. The second part explores some approaches to represent preferences which exhibit boundary effects. The third part shows that many results of insurance economics derived in the expected utility framework do not remain valid with non-expected utility theory

I / Foundations of Utility and Probability -- The Foundations of the Theory of Utility and Risk. Some Central Points of the Discussions at the Oslo Conference -- II / One Utility Function or Two? -- Utility and Risk Preference Functions -- Neo-Cardinalism -- Prediction, Measurement, and Error of Utility: A Reply to Allais -- III / Prescriptive Versus Descriptive Decision Models -- Remarks to Professor Allais' Contributions to the Theory of Expected Utility and Related Subjects -- Decision-Aid and Expected Utility Theory: A Critical Survey -- IV / Aspects of Process Utility -- The Importance of What Might Have Been -- Relativity in Decision Theory -- The Utility of Gambling and of Outcomes: Inconsistent First Approximations -- Name Index.

In Decision Space: Multidimensional Utility Analysis, first published in 2001, Paul Weirich increases the power and versatility of utility analysis and in the process advances decision theory. Combining traditional and novel methods of option evaluation into one systematic method of analysis, multidimensional utility analysis is a valuable tool. It provides formulations of important decision principles, such as the principle to maximize expected utility; enriches decision theory in solving recalcitrant decision problems; and provides in particular for the cases in which an expert must make a decision for a group of people. The multiple dimensions of this analysis create a decision space broad enough to accommodate all factors affecting an option's utility. The book will be of interest to advanced students and professionals working in the subject of decision theory, as well as to economists and other social scientists

This Element offers an accessible but technically detailed review of expected utility theory (EU), which is a model of individual decision-making under uncertainty that is central for both economics and philosophy. The Element's approach falls between the history of ideas and economic methodology. At the historical level, it reviews EU by following its conceptual evolution from its original formulation in the eighteenth century through its transformations and extensions in the mid-twentieth century to its more recent supersession by post-EU theories such as prospect theory. In reconstructing the history of EU, it focuses on the methodological issues that have accompanied its evolution, such as whether the utility function and the other components of EU correspond to actual mental entities. On many of these issues, no consensus has yet been reached, and in this Element the author offers his view on them.

I. Rationality and Uncertainty in Decision Theory -- Rationality and Uncertainty -- Practical Certainty and the Acceptance of Empirical Statements -- A New Basis for Decision Theory -- Some Questions about Bayesian Decision Theory -- Regret, Recrimination and Rationality -- II. Utility and Uncertainty -- Determination of Cardinal Utility According to an Intrinsic Invariant Model -- The Present State of Utility Theory -- A Characterization of Decision Matrices that Yield Instrumental Expected Utility -- Associative Means and Utility Theory -- On Utility Functions in a Financial Context -- The Generalized Means Model (GMM) for Non-Deterministic Decision Making -- Individual Cardinal Utility, Interpersonal Comparisons, and Social Choice -- Surviving Implications of Expected Utility Theory -- Consistency and Expected Utility Theory -- Aggregate Revealed Preferences and Random Utility Theory -- Concave Additively Decomposable Representing Functions and Risk Aversion -- III. Information and Utility -- Concepts of Information Based on Utility -- Information Utility — Statistical and Semantical Features -- IV. Risk Propensity and Decision -- Assessing Risk Propensity -- What Naive Decision Makers can Tell Us About Risk -- A Measure of Risk Aversion in Terms of Preferences -- State-Dependent Utility and Risk Aversion -- V. Decision Making Under Uncertainty -- The Impact of Uncertainty on the Optimal Decision of Risk Neutral Firms -- Strategic Planning Models and Risk Management.

Many of the complex problems faced by decision makers involve uncertainty as well as multiple conflicting objectives. This book provides a complete understanding of the types of objective functions that should be used in multiattribute decision making. By using tools such as preference, value, and utility functions, readers will learn state-of-the-art methods to analyze prospects to guide decision making and will develop a process that guarantees a defensible analysis to rationalize choices. Summarizing and distilling classical techniques and providing extensive coverage of recent advances in the field, the author offers practical guidance on how to make good decisions in the face of uncertainty. This text will appeal to graduate students and practitioners alike in systems engineering, operations research, business, management, government, climate change, energy, and healthcare

Opening Address -- Paradoxes and Their Solutions -- Behavior Under Uncertainty and Its Implications for Policy -- Frequency, Probability and Chance -- Utility Analysis from the Point of View of Model Building -- On Second Order Probabilities and the Notion of Epistemic Risk -- Expected Utility Theory Does Not Apply to All Rational Men -- Sure-Thing Doubts -- The Pre-Outcome Period and the Utility of Gambling -- Empirical Demonst:ation that Expected Utility Decision Analysis is Not Operational -- Risk Attitude Hypotheses of Utility Theory -- Probabilistic Forecasts: Some Results and Speculations -- The Supra-Additivity of Subjective Probability -- A Decision Analysis Model When the Substitution Principle is Not Acceptable -- Generalized Expected Utility Analysis and the Nature of Observed Violations of the Independence Axiom -- Use of Subjective Probabilities in Game Theory -- Bargaining and Rationality: A Discussion of Zeuthen'as Principle and Some Other Decision Rules -- Hotelling Utility Functions -- Cardinal Utility and Decision Making Under Uncertainty -- Decision Making with an Uncertain Utility Function -- Welfare Losses Arising from Increased Public Information, and/or the Opening of New Securities Markets: Examples of the General Theory of the Second Best -- Decision Making in Dynamic Environments -- The Economics of Organizational Design -- Indifference Spanning Analysis -- Evaluation of Oil Spill Combat Plans by Means of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis -- Name Index.

Utility-based theory and the fallback choice-theoretic framework are shown to be biased, irremediably flawed and misleading. A radically different theory of value and of consumer behaviour is proposed based on existential interpretations of scarcity, value and self-interest. For self-conscious mortals, only time is scarce. All other is derivative scarcity. Value is in the life, as a knowledge extract of time, which goes into commodities as direct human labour and depreciated capital, through their production. By structuring their preferences, consumers try to confiscate more of such