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Small Worlds and Sure Things: Consequentialism by the Back Door

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Utility Theories: Measurements and Applications

Part of the book series: Studies in Risk and Uncertainty ((SIRU,volume 3))

Abstract

Over roughly the past decade, a large number of generalizations of the von Neumann-Morgenstern (1944) expected-utility (EU) theory of choice under risk and the Savage (1954) subjective-expected-utility (SEU) theory of choice under uncertainty have appeared; see Machina (1987) and Fishburn (1988, 1989) for recent surveys. These generalized models constitute a boon for empiricists since they collectively accommodate persistently observed and thoughtful choice behaviors, such as those identified by Allais (1953) and Ellsberg (1961), that are paradoxical within the EU or SEU framework. Indeed, a currently active topic within behavioral decision theory is to discriminate amongst the generalizations (see Camerer, 1992).

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LaValle, I.H. (1992). Small Worlds and Sure Things: Consequentialism by the Back Door. In: Edwards, W. (eds) Utility Theories: Measurements and Applications. Studies in Risk and Uncertainty, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2952-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2952-7_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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