Optimal selection of thek best of a sequence withk stops

Aarni Lehtinen

Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, 1997, vol. 46, issue 2, 261 pages

Abstract: We first consider the situation in which the decision-maker is allowed to have five choices with purpose to choose exactly the five absolute best candidates fromN applicants. The optimal stopping rule and the maximum probability of making the right five-choice are given for largeN ε N, the maximum asymptotic value of the probability of the best choice being lim N→∝ P (win) ≈ 0.104305. Then, we study the general problem of selecting thek best of a sequence withk stops, constructing first a rough solution for this problem. Using this suboptimal solution, we find an approximation for the optimal probability values P k of the form $$P_k \approx \frac{1}{{(e - 1)k + 1}}$$ for any k ε N. Copyright Physica-Verlag 1997

Keywords: Secretary Problem; Best Choice Problem; Optimal Stopping Rule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1007/BF01217694

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