Synopses & Reviews
The standard rationality hypothesis implies that individualbehaviour can be represented as the maximization of a suitablyrestricted utility function. This hypothesis lies at the heart of alarge body of economics, of course, but also in political science, ethics, and other major branches of the social sciences. Though thishypothesis of utility maximization deserves our continued respect, finding further refinements and developing new critiques remain areasof active research.The main purpose of the "Handbook of Utility Theory" is to makemore widely available some recent developments in the area. Theeditors selected a list of topics that seemed ripe enough to becovered by review articles. Then they invited contributions fromresearchers whose expert work had come to their attention. So the listof topics and contributors is largely the editors' responsibility.Each contributor's chapter has been refereed, and revised according tothe referees' remarks.Whereas Volume I of the "Handbook of Utility Theory" is largelyconcentrated on basic theory, the present volume is concerned withextensions and applications to other branches of economic theory.Taken together, these first two volumes contain all the purelytheoretical material that the editors planned to cover. The chapterson experimental and empirical research on utility and the chapters onthe history of utility theory will appear in Volume III.
Synopsis
The main purpose of the Handbook of Utility Theory is to make more widely available some recent developments in the area. The editors selected a list of topics that seemed ripe enough to be covered by review articles. Then they invited contributions from researchers whose expert work had come to their attention. So the list of topics and contributors is largely the editors' responsibility. Each contributor's chapter has been refereed, and revised according to the referees' remarks. Whereas Volume I of the Handbook of Utility Theory is largely concentrated on basic theory, the present volume is concerned with extensions and applications to other branches of economic theory. Taken together, these first two volumes contain all the purely theoretical material that the editors planned to cover. The chapters on experimental and empirical research on utility and the chapters on the history of utility theory will appear in Volume III.
Synopsis
The main purpose of the
Handbook of Utility Theory is to make more widely available some recent developments in the area. The editors selected a list of topics that seemed ripe enough to be covered by review articles. Then they invited contributions from researchers whose expert work had come to their attention. So the list of topics and contributors is largely the editors' responsibility. Each contributor's chapter has been refereed, and revised according to the referees' remarks.
Whereas Volume I of the Handbook of Utility Theory is largely concentrated on basic theory, the present volume is concerned with extensions and applications to other branches of economic theory. Taken together, these first two volumes contain all the purely theoretical material that the editors planned to cover. The chapters on experimental and empirical research on utility and the chapters on the history of utility theory will appear in Volume III.
Table of Contents
Preface. 14. Alternatives to Expected Utility: Foundations; R. Sugden. 15. Alternatives to Expected Utility: Formal Theories; U. Schmidt. 16. State-Dependent Utility and Decision Theory; J.H. Drèze, A. Rustichini. 17. Ranking Sets of Objects; S. Barber