The problems associated with interpersonal comparisons are particularly intractable. This paper presents a procedure whereby the relative importance of any particular individual varies over the set of social states. In one sense, the stronger (relative to some norm) a person feels about any particular pairwise decision, the larger his say in that outcome. This procedure leads to a nested sequence of aggregate partial orderings which reflects this strength of preference. Under the assumptions presented it is also possible, given any two social states, to characterize the minimal amount of interpersonal comparison which is necessary in order to arrive at an aggregate ordering.

Let currency be issued with several commodities as backing. If certain pricing rules are strictly followed, it is shown that currency can then be redeemed without restriction for any of the commodities and that, according to a certain definition, the currency retains constant value, so that general inflation cannot occur.

Abstract Presents a reply to Bart Ward's commentary on the assessment of prior distributions for applying Bayesian statistics in auditing. Assumption regarding the problem of obtaining prior distributions of good quality; Fallacy of Ward's reasoning.

It is not uncommon on occasions such as this to talk about the shortcomings in the theory of Finance, and to emphasize how little progress has been made in answering the basic questions in Finance, despite enormous research efforts. Indeed, it is not uncommon on such occasions to attack our basic "mythodology, " particularly the "Ivory Tower " nature of our assumptions, as the major reasons for our lack of progress. Like a Sunday morning sermon, such talks serve many useful functions. For one, they serve to deflate our professional egos. For another, they serve to remind us that the importance of a contribution as judged by our professional peers (the gold we really work for) is often not closely aligned with its operational importance in the outside world. Also, such talks serve to comfort those just entering the field, by letting them know that there is much left to do because so little has been done. While such talks are not uncommon, this is not what my talk is about. Rather, my discussion centers on the positive progress made in the development of a theory of Finance using the continuous-time mode of analysis. Hearing this in.1975, amidst an economic recession with a baffling new disease called "stagflation " and with our financial markets only beginning to recover from the worst

In decision analysis we normally consider the value of information to be a constant against which the cost of information is compared. However, when it is possible to buy information sequentially, the value of information is not a constant. Rather, it is a function of the prices of the various pieces of information, or “observables.” When we are faced with a decision and learn one observable, this information not only helps us make the original decision, but also helps us decide if we should pay for more observables. For this reason, the first observable has a value above and beyond that which we would assign if there were no possibility of obtaining additional information. To decide whether or not to buy one observable we must know the prices of all the observables.

Canonical correlation analysis of manufacturing firm data demonstrated that organizational ?competence? (executive ratings of organizational performance and executive turnover) was not strongly related to situational variables like organization size, structure, and technology. Instead, ?competence? was related primarily to management's values regarding the firm's publics, such as customers, suppliers, employees, and government.

This report examines a class of mean-risk dominance models for investment and capital budgeting situations in which risk is associated with returns that fall below a specified target return. The model is offered as a partial reconciliation among viewpoints that have been associated with a large number of different models for choice in risky decision situations, including various parametric models, expected utility models, and stochastic dominance models. It is argued that the specific type of model examined has promising computational possibilities, and that it has a fair degree of compatibility with expected utility, stochastic dominance, and with the primary concerns expressed by decision makers in investment situations.