Rational Decisions in Large Worlds

Ken Binmore

Annals of Economics and Statistics, 2007, issue 86, 25-41

Abstract: This paper argues that we need to look beyond Bayesian decision the, for an answer to the general problem of making national decision under uncertainty. The view that Bayesian decision theory is only genuinely valid in a small world was asserted very firmly by SAVAGE [1951] when laying down the principles of the theory in his path - breaking Foundations of Statistics. He makes the distinction between small and large worlds in a folksy way by quoting the proverbs "Look before you leap" and "Cross that bridge when you corne to it". You are in a small world if it is feasible always to look before you leap. You are in a large world if there are some bridges that you cannot cross before you corne to them.

Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20079192 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:adr:anecst:y:2007:i:86:p:25-41

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of Economics and Statistics is currently edited by Laurent Linnemer

More articles in Annals of Economics and Statistics from GENES Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Secretariat General () and Laurent Linnemer ().