Foundations of Decision Analysis: Along the Way

Peter C. Fishburn
Additional contact information
Peter C. Fishburn: AT&T Bell Laboratories, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974-2070

Management Science, 1989, vol. 35, issue 4, 387-405

Abstract: This paper offers a personal perspective on the development of decision theory and related subjects during the past half century. It first reviews six milestones in the foundations of decision analysis that are associated with Frank P. Ramsey, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Leonard J. Savage, Maurice Allais and Ward Edwards, West Churchman and Russell Ackoff, and Kenneth Arrow. It then gives a personal account of further developments over the past 30 years in linear utility theory, subjective probability and ambiguity, nonlinear preference and utility, stochastic dominance and inequality analysis, multiattribute utility theory, and the theory of social choice. The paper could be viewed as a supplement to my extensive review of utility theory in Management Science some 20 years ago. However, it makes no claim of completeness since its main aim is to recall important debts and describe what it has been like to be a part of the development of decision analysis in the past few decades.

Keywords: utility theory; decision analysis; choice under uncertainty; social choice theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1989
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.35.4.387 (application/pdf)

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:inm:ormnsc:v:35:y:1989:i:4:p:387-405

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().