This paper analyzes the information security investment decisions by a firm with two correlated information assets. When information assets are correlated, a firm may face additional losses compared to a loss from a single breach, and the probability of security breach on one set may increase the probability on the other. We model the security investment of a risk-taking firm as well as risk-ne...

To date, a large body of data supports the hygiene hypothesis. However, the explanation of the relationship of autoimmune and allergic diseases with a decrease in microbial load still seems insufficient. Here, an attempt is made at interpreting the available data in terms of a new perspective on infection and immunity.

In two-outcome strictly competitive games, equilibrium mixed strategies do not depend on ultimate prizes. Dixit and Skeath [Games of Strategy (1999) Norton, New York] find this ‘counter-intuitive’. We show this invariance comes from reduction, not independence; and provide conditions for ‘intuitive’ comparative statics under recursive expected utility.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re...

Stefania Boiano InvisibleStudio Unit 36, 88–90 Hatton Garden London EC1N 8PN United Kingdom [email protected] www.stefaniaboiano.net Jonathan Bowen London South Bank University Faculty of Business, Borough Road London SE1 0AA United Kingdom [email protected] www.jpbowen.com Giuliano Gaia InvisibleStudio Via Circo 1 20123 Milan Italy [email protected] www.giulianogaia...

In formalizing a ‘veil of ignorance’ type procedure, this paper considers how an agent’s preferences over a set of alternatives change as he is placed at an increasing ‘distance’ from the consequences of his choices. A definition for such ‘removed preferences’ is presented and its properties studied. As an application, it is demonstrated that decreasingly impatient agents are ‘essentially’ expo...

• Abstract. Expected utIlity theory, the most prom!­ nent economIc model of how Indwlduals choose among alternatwe risks, exhIbIts serIOus defIcIen­ CieS In describing emplncally observed behavIOr Consequently, economIsts are actwely searching for a new paradIgm to descnbe behavIOr under nsk TheIr mathematical tools, such as functIOnal anal­ ys~s and measure theory, reflect a new, more sOphr-st...

We provide a random variable characterization of the necessary and sufficient conditions for a shift of the distribution of rate of return on the risky asset in the two asset portfolio problem to reduce demand for all risk–averse expected utility maximizing investors. We provide random variable characterizations of the shifts that reduce both demand and expected utility for all risk–averse inve...

A social choice function: A function that determines a social choice according to players’ preferences over the different possible alternatives. A mechanism: a game in incomplete information, in which player strategies are based on their private preferences. A mechanism implements a social choice function f if the equilibrium strategies yield an outcome that coincides with f . Dominant strategi...

We characterize optimal strategies in a simple herding model where observations have a small cost. We assume that there are two states and two possible signals that each agent may get. The prior distribution is biased towards adopting behavior. That is ex-ante adopting gives a higher expected utility than not adopting. Contrary to Kultti & Miettinen (2005) herding does not arise deterministical...

We present two axiomatizations of the Second-Order Expected Utility model in the context of the standard models of choice under uncertainty.