The History and Methodology of Expected Utility

The History and Methodology of Expected Utility
Author: Ivan Moscati
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2023-08-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1009198254

This Element offers an accessible but technically detailed review of expected utility theory (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.

Measuring Utility

Measuring Utility
Author: Ivan Moscati
Publisher:
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2019
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199372764

Utility is a key concept in the economics of individual decision-making. However, utility is not measurable in a straightforward way. As a result, from the very beginning there has been debates about the meaning of utility as well as how to measure it. This book is an innovative investigation of how these arguments changed over time. Measuring Utility reconstructs economists' ideas and discussions about utility measurement from 1870 to 1985, as well as their attempts to measure utility empirically. The book brings into focus the interplay between the evolution of utility analysis, economists' ideas about utility measurement, and their conception of what measurement in general means. It also explores the relationships between the history of utility measurement in economics, the history of the measurement of sensations in psychology, and the history of measurement theory in general. Finally, the book discusses some methodological problems related to utility measurement, such as the epistemological status of the utility concept and its measures. The first part covers the period 1870-1910, and discusses the issue of utility measurement in the theories of Jevons, Menger, Walras and other early utility theorists. Part II deals with the emergence of the notions of ordinal and cardinal utility during the period 1900-1945, and discusses two early attempts to give an empirical content to the notion of utility. Part III focuses on the 1945-1955 debate on utility measurement that was originated by von Neumann and Morgenstern's expected utility theory (EUT). Part IV reconstructs the experimental attempts to measure the utility of money between 1950 and 1985 within the framework provided by EUT. This historical and epistemological overview provides keen insights into current debates about rational choice theory and behavioral economics in the theory of individual decision-making and the philosophy of economics.

The Capital Asset Pricing Model in the 21st Century

The Capital Asset Pricing Model in the 21st Century
Author: Haim Levy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2011-10-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1139503022

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the mean-variance (M-V) rule, which are based on classic expected utility theory, have been heavily criticized theoretically and empirically. The advent of behavioral economics, prospect theory and other psychology-minded approaches in finance challenges the rational investor model from which CAPM and M-V derive. Haim Levy argues that the tension between the classic financial models and behavioral economics approaches is more apparent than real. This book aims to relax the tension between the two paradigms. Specifically, Professor Levy shows that although behavioral economics contradicts aspects of expected utility theory, CAPM and M-V are intact in both expected utility theory and cumulative prospect theory frameworks. There is furthermore no evidence to reject CAPM empirically when ex-ante parameters are employed. Professionals may thus comfortably teach and use CAPM and behavioral economics or cumulative prospect theory as coexisting paradigms.

Risk, Choice, and Uncertainty

Risk, Choice, and Uncertainty
Author: George G. Szpiro
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0231550979

At its core, economics is about making decisions. In the history of economic thought, great intellectual prowess has been exerted toward devising exquisite theories of optimal decision making in situations of constraint, risk, and scarcity. Yet not all of our choices are purely logical, and so there is a longstanding tension between those emphasizing the rational and irrational sides of human behavior. One strand develops formal models of rational utility maximizing while the other draws on what behavioral science has shown about our tendency to act irrationally. In Risk, Choice, and Uncertainty, George G. Szpiro offers a new narrative of the three-century history of the study of decision making, tracing how crucial ideas have evolved and telling the stories of the thinkers who shaped the field. Szpiro examines economics from the early days of theories spun from anecdotal evidence to the rise of a discipline built around elegant mathematics through the past half century’s interest in describing how people actually behave. Considering the work of Locke, Bentham, Jevons, Walras, Friedman, Tversky and Kahneman, Thaler, and a range of other thinkers, he sheds light on the vast scope of discovery since Bernoulli first proposed a solution to the St. Petersburg Paradox. Presenting fundamental mathematical theories in easy-to-understand language, Risk, Choice, and Uncertainty is a revelatory history for readers seeking to grasp the grand sweep of economic thought.

Handbook of the Economics of Risk and Uncertainty

Handbook of the Economics of Risk and Uncertainty
Author: Mark Machina
Publisher: Newnes
Total Pages: 897
Release: 2013-11-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0444536868

The need to understand the theories and applications of economic and finance risk has been clear to everyone since the financial crisis, and this collection of original essays proffers broad, high-level explanations of risk and uncertainty. The economics of risk and uncertainty is unlike most branches of economics in spanning from the individual decision-maker to the market (and indeed, social decisions), and ranging from purely theoretical analysis through individual experimentation, empirical analysis, and applied and policy decisions. It also has close and sometimes conflicting relationships with theoretical and applied statistics, and psychology. The aim of this volume is to provide an overview of diverse aspects of this field, ranging from classical and foundational work through current developments. - Presents coherent summaries of risk and uncertainty that inform major areas in economics and finance - Divides coverage between theoretical, empirical, and experimental findings - Makes the economics of risk and uncertainty accessible to scholars in fields outside economics

Portfolio Theory and Risk Management

Portfolio Theory and Risk Management
Author: Maciej J. Capiński
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2014-08-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1139991779

With its emphasis on examples, exercises and calculations, this book suits advanced undergraduates as well as postgraduates and practitioners. It provides a clear treatment of the scope and limitations of mean-variance portfolio theory and introduces popular modern risk measures. Proofs are given in detail, assuming only modest mathematical background, but with attention to clarity and rigour. The discussion of VaR and its more robust generalizations, such as AVaR, brings recent developments in risk measures within range of some undergraduate courses and includes a novel discussion of reducing VaR and AVaR by means of hedging techniques. A moderate pace, careful motivation and more than 70 exercises give students confidence in handling risk assessments in modern finance. Solutions and additional materials for instructors are available at www.cambridge.org/9781107003675.

Expected Utility Hypotheses and the Allais Paradox

Expected Utility Hypotheses and the Allais Paradox
Author: M. Allais
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 706
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9401576297

Utility theory or, value theory in general, is certainly the cornerstone of decision theory, game theory, microecon~mics, and all social and political theories which deal with public decisions. Recently the American School of utility, founded by von N eumann Morgenstern, encountered a far-going criticism by the French School of utility represented by its founder Allais. The whole basis of the theory of decisions involving risk has been shaken and put into question. Consequently, basic research in the fundamentals of utility and value theory evolved into a crisis. Like any crisis in basic research, and this one was not an exception, it was very fruitful. One may simply say: Allais versus von Neumann-Morgenstern, or the French School of utility versus the American School, became one of the battlefields of scientific development which proved to be a most creative source of new advances and new developments in all those sciences which are based on evaluation of utilities.

The Handbook of Economic Methodology

The Handbook of Economic Methodology
Author: John Bryan Davis
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 600
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

A multidisciplinary reference in which over 100 commissioned essays provide details of topics and issues that have developed in recent decades and introduce a variety of emerging themes that economic methodologists have begun to explore. The encyclopedia- type articles discuss such topics as aggregation, evolutionary economics, Otto Neurath, survey methods, Thorstein Veblen, selectionist arguments, the marginalist controversy, game theory, economic sociology, and causality. Each includes an extensive bibliography. Practicing economists and students of the philosophy or history of economics might find useful information and an entry into deeper investigation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Revealed Preference Theory

Revealed Preference Theory
Author: Christopher P. Chambers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2016-01-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107087805

The theory of revealed preference has a long, distinguished tradition in economics but lacked a systematic presentation of the theory until now. This book deals with basic questions in economic theory and studies situations in which empirical observations are consistent or inconsistent with some of the best known economic theories.