Multiattribute utility models and cost-benefit models often arrange the objectives into a hierarchical structure in order to identify appropriate subobjectives and to select appropriate attributes to measure the subobjectives. This paper discusses nonadditive models that use the hierarchical...

In applying multiattribute utility theory, one typically assumes the condition of mutual utility independence and uses a multiattribute utility function that is additive or multiplicative. This paper proposes a model in which this condition is not satisfied, that is, the risk attitude for one...

Social preferences for equity in the distribution of net benefits are not represented in a cost-benefit study by the sum of the individuals' net present values. This paper presents two different decision analysts models for representing such an equity issue. For each model, conditions on the...

Erratum to author's paper "Conditions on Risk Attitude for a Single Attribute," Management Sci. 27 (2, February) (1981).

This paper discusses conditions on risk attitudes that imply special types of expected-utility functions. First, conditions are described that correspond to different choices of an arithmetic operation that measures the importance of changes in consequences. Second, conditions are described such...

Cost-benefit and risk analysis studies that model tradeoffs between the present and the distant future by means of present value discounting have been criticized for according the future, and thus future generations, far too little importance. This paper presents an alternative means of modeling...

This paper presents a systematic discussion of decision analysis models for attitudes toward risk when the effects of a public policy choice extend into the distant or unbounded future. Several issues of social risk attitudes are identified and discussed. Conditions on preferences are presented...

For a decision problem having consequences described by a single attribute, the task of determining a utility function can be facilitated by verifying that the decision maker's risk attitude satisfies a condition such as constant risk aversion. We investigate a general class of conditions on...