Decision Making In The Absense Of Certainty

This book is designed to help readers analyze, make economic tradeoffs and choose wisely in complex decision problems where uncertainty, for all practical purposes, can be ignored. The authors focus on decisions involving relevant costs and revenues, pricing, constraints, the time value of money, and the use of scenarios, or what if analysis.

In this title, originally published in 1984, Wilman develops and describes a methodology for imputing a monetary value to the loss in beach recreational services that would result from a hypothetical oil spill in the Georges Bank area off Massachusetts. Combining an oil-spill risk analysis model with an hedonic pricing model to generate estimates of beach pollution costs associated with offshore oil development, Wilman makes possible for the first time a rational judgement regarding whether the benefits of developing offshore oil outweigh the costs. This book is a valuable resource for students interested in environmental studies and Wilman’s methodological approach can be used to value other nonmarket resource services in any area.

David Hume (1711-1776) is perhaps best known for his treatises on problems of epistemology, skepticism, and causation. A less familiar side of his intellectual output is his work on legal and political theory. David Hume's Political Theory brings together Hume's diverse writings on law and government, collected and examined with a view to revealing the philosopher's coherent and persuasive theory of politics. Through close textual analysis, Neil McArthur suggests that the key to Hume's political theory lies in its distinction between barbarous and civilized government. Throughout the study, the author explores Hume's argument that a society's progress from barbarism to civilization depends on the legal and political system by which it is governed. Ultimately, McArthur demonstrates that the skepticism apparent in much of Hume's work does not necessarily tie him to a strict conservative ideology; rather, Hume's political theory is seen to emphasize many liberal virtues as well. Based on a new conception of Hume's political philosophy, this is a groundbreaking work and a welcome addition to the existing literature.

An authoritative, up-to-date graduate textbook on machine learning that highlights its historical context and societal impacts Patterns, Predictions, and Actions introduces graduate students to the essentials of machine learning while offering invaluable perspective on its history and social implications. Beginning with the foundations of decision making, Moritz Hardt and Benjamin Recht explain how representation, optimization, and generalization are the constituents of supervised learning. They go on to provide self-contained discussions of causality, the practice of causal inference, sequential decision making, and reinforcement learning, equipping readers with the concepts and tools they need to assess the consequences that may arise from acting on statistical decisions. Provides a modern introduction to machine learning, showing how data patterns support predictions and consequential actions Pays special attention to societal impacts and fairness in decision making Traces the development of machine learning from its origins to today Features a novel chapter on machine learning benchmarks and datasets Invites readers from all backgrounds, requiring some experience with probability, calculus, and linear algebra An essential textbook for students and a guide for researchers

The book presents observations concerning automated decision-making from a general point of view at the same time as it analyses the manner in which praxis in some jurisdictions has evolved as concerns automated decision-making and how the requirements that are placed by the legal orders on it are formulated. The principle of the rule of law should apply in the context of automated decision-making of public authorities just as much as when the decision-makers are physical persons. In sync with increasing automatization of decision-making in public authorities, problematizing questions about the appropriate legal basis for algorithmic decision-making have started emerge. How should the principle of the rule of law apply within the area of automated decision-making, how should automated decision-making be regulated so that it satisfies the requirements created by the principle of the rule of law, and how should the principle of the rule of law be made concrete in decision-making that is based on algorithms? The proposal for an AI Act launched by the European Commission in April 2021, including an identification of high-risk uses of algorithmic techniques, raises further questions concerning practices and interpretations related to automated decision-making. The state based on the rule of law proceeds from the maxim that public powers are exercised within a legal frame that makes the exercise of public powers foreseeable in light of legal norms. Also, a state based on the rule of law requires that the contents of the exercise of public powers is regulated by legal norms, which means that the citizens must be able to know everything that is relevant about how the powers will be exercised, not only who it is that will exercise the powers. Because of rules and principles of this kind, including non-discrimination and proportionality, the exercise of powers will not become arbitrary.