Probabilistic models commonly assume that variables are independent of each other conditioned on a subset of other variables. Graphical models provide a powerful framework for encoding such conditional independence structure of a large collection of random variables. A special class of graphical...

Existing preference reasoning systems have been successful in simple domains. Broader success requires more natural and more expressive preference representations. This thesis develops a representation of logical preferences that combines numerical tradeoff ratios between partial outcome...

In many studies of market microstructure, theoretical analysis quickly becomes in tractable for all but the simplest stylized models. This thesis considers two alternative approaches, namely, the use of experiments with human subjects and simulations with intelligent agents, to address some of...