Consumer’s Optimal Decision and the Role of Insurance in the Risk State—An Analytical Perspective Based on the Expected Utility Function

Author(s):  
Wenting Cao
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nordholm

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the Swedish National Agency for Education’s launch of the nationwide Lgr11 curriculum reform and how local education authorities (LEAs) in one municipality translated and responded to the National Agency’s directives. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents empirical data from a qualitative study of documents and interviews using the analytical perspective from Scott (2001, 2008) to explore regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive aspects of the National Agency’s communications. To analyse the local translations made by LEAs at the central municipal level, analytical categories of assimilation, loose coupling and transformation were used. Findings – The overall results show that the National Agency primarily communicated its policy instructions to LEAs using normative and cultural-cognitive arguments and directives. The lack of sharper regulative directives, such as for division of labour, decision making, mandates and developmental roles, reduced the potential for LEAs to become influential actors in organising local implementation. An analysis using the assistance of assimilation categories, loose coupling and transformation of the paper also shows that LEAs need system support to accomplish more innovative middle-tier translations through elements of loose coupling and transformation – to become catalysts for school system improvement. Research limitations/implications – The research is designed to understand actions and interpretations within specific institutional, organisational and social settings. Originality/value – This paper contributes to former findings by offering a novel perspective for understanding policy translation and the role of middle-tier intermediaries in decentralised education systems.


1992 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-38
Author(s):  
Subarna K. Samanta ◽  
Ali H. Mohamad-Zadeh

The major objective of this paper is to derive a set of optimal decision rules (for asset or inventory management) for a commercial bank operating under uncertain circumstances (subject to stochastic deposit loss). The bank is assumed to be maximizing the expected utility derived from it's net income. This objective is realized by the marginal conditions of the model. It shows how and under what conditions, the banker should expand loans at the expense of securities and/or excess reserves and how he adjusts to de-regulations and how the change in uncertainty about the deposit loss affects him.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Alexander ◽  
Elina Jaakkola ◽  
Linda D. Hollebeek

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to broaden extant understanding of actor engagement behavior beyond its currently dominant dyadic (micro-level) focus, by examining it from multiple levels of aggregation within a service ecosystem framework. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper draws on service-dominant logic and structuration theory as theoretical lenses to inform engagement research. Findings By means of a stepwise exercise of “zooming out,” the paper introduces a multi-perspective (micro-, meso-, macro- and meta-level) view of actor engagement that develops understanding of multiple engagement contexts, and suggests that balancing multiple roles may result in actor disengagement behavior. The role of reference groups and role conflict associated with balancing multiple roles is critical to understanding why engaged actor proclivities may wax and wane between contexts. Research limitations/implications The paper offers a set of five propositions that can be utilized by engagement scholars undertaking further research in this area. Practical implications Firms need to understand the values and norms embedded in diverse engagement contexts which can affect actor groups’ needs and motivations. Firms should develop appropriate organizational mechanisms to facilitate (rather than impede or obstruct) the desired behaviors of engaged actors. Originality/value The broader context within which engaged actors operate, and its effects on engagement, has been largely overlooked to date. By broadening the analytical perspective on engagement beyond the dyadic this paper reveals previously unaddressed aspects of this phenomenon, such as the role of disengagement behavior, and the effects of multiple engagement contexts on actors’ future behaviors.


1979 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Pressacco

This paper concerns the Borch model of a reinsurance market seen as a model of an economy under uncertainty.In a market of this type the goods traded are unit coverings contingent to a particular state of nature (n-tuple of claims).Our idea is to regard the probability of a state of nature as a sort of intrinsic value of the related contingent covering. From this point of view we examine the role of the reinsurance market in modifying values in market equilibrium prices and other questions, related to this classical economic problem, in the particular case of a quadratic utility function for all companies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Yoann Blangero ◽  
Muriel Rabilloud ◽  
René Ecochard ◽  
Fabien Subtil

The use of a quantitative treatment selection marker to choose between two treatment options requires the estimate of an optimal threshold above which one of these two treatments is preferred. Herein, the optimal threshold expression is based on the definition of a utility function which aims to quantify the expected utility of the population (e.g. life expectancy, quality of life) by taking into account both efficacy (success or failure) and toxicity of each treatment option. Therefore, the optimal threshold is the marker value that maximizes the expected utility of the population. A method modelling the marker distribution in patient subgroups defined by the received treatment and the outcome is proposed to calculate the parameters of the utility function so as to estimate the optimal threshold and its 95% credible interval using the Bayesian inference. The simulation study found that the method had low bias and coverage probability close to 95% in multiple settings, but also the need of large sample size to estimate the optimal threshold in some settings. The method is then applied to the PETACC-8 trial that compares the efficacy of chemotherapy with a combined chemotherapy + anti-epidermal growth factor receptor in stage III colorectal cancer.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-522
Author(s):  
Scott Martin

The interaction of Spanish and indigenous peoples during the conquest of Mexico yielded a wide variety of actions and decisions. Native groups sometimes battled the Spanish but in other instances cooperated. The Spaniards often attacked when facing overwhelming odds but in other situations retreated with meager gains. Insight into those decisions and actions is gained by looking at human wants and preferences. The Friedman-Savage utility function is applied to specific important events of the conquest of Mexico to clarify the decision making of the participants. An interdisciplinary approach is employed in constructing the expected utility of wealth model, where the maximization of the expected utility of wealth and movement between socioeconomic classes is critically analyzed. Evidence from the Juan de Grijalva expedition, interactions with coastal villages, Hernán Cortés's approach to Tenochtitlan, and the Tlaxcalan decision to ally with the Spaniards are used to clearly illustrate the relationship between the utility of wealth and decision making. Looking through the lens of the Friedman-Savage utility function at events up to Cortés's meeting with Moteucçoma, it is clear that the utility of wealth and the unprecedented opportunities to move to a new socioeconomic class were strong factors in the decision making of the participants.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Lagutin ◽  
Tatyana Sidorina

When carrying out professional activities, officers of the VNG of the Russian Federation are often in difficult, stressful, emotionally stressful situations associated with the use of weapons as a particularly dangerous means of destruction. The right to use a weapon by an officer makes him responsible for its use. And therefore requires the officer to make a balanced optimal decision, which is associated with the risk and transience of events, and in which no mistake can be made, since the price of it can be someone's life. It is at such a moment that it is important that the officer has stable skills in making a decision on the use of weapons, and this requires skills not only in managing subordinates or the situation,but in managing himself. The complication of the military-professional activity, manifested in the need to develop the ability to quickly and accurately make command decisions, exacerbating the problem of social responsibility of an officer who has the management of unit that leads to an understanding of his singular personal and professional responsibility, as the ability to govern themselves makes it possible to achieve a positive result of the Department for the DBA. This characterizes the need for a commander to have the ability to manage himself, as a "system" that manages others. Forming skills of self-control, patience, compassion, having mastered algorithms of making managerial decisions, the cycle of implementing managerial functions, etc., a person comes to the belief: "before effectively managing others, it is necessary to learn how to manage yourself." The required level of personal and professional maturity can be formed in a person as a result of purposeful self-management, which determines the special role of professional and personal self-management in the training of future officers.


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