Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2007Decision Analysis: A Personal Account of How It Got Started and Evolved
In this chapter, Howard Raiffa discusses the evolution of decision analysis and his personal involvement …
In this chapter, Howard Raiffa discusses the evolution of decision analysis and his personal involvement in its development. He describes the early days of Operations Research (OR) in the late 1940s with its approach to complex, strategic decision making. After reading John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern’s Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1947) and Abraham Wald’s two books (1947, 1950), he became involved in statistical decision theory. A few years later, after reading Leonard…
Preferences/Values | Operations Research | Decision Theory | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Probability/Bayes | Decision Analysis | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance -
ReviewPublication 2015Agent-Based Models and Microsimulation
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models …
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models used to simulate the actions and interactions of “agents” within a system. Usually, each agent has a set of rules for how he or she responds to the environment and to other agents. These models are used to gain insight into the emergent behavior of complex systems with many agents, in which the emergent behavior depends upon the micro-level behavior…
Microsimulation | State-Transition | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Mathematical Models | Dynamic Simulation | Military/Defense | Science/Technology -
BookPublication 2016Foundations of Decision Analysis
This book is described by the authors as emerging from what they have learned by …
This book is described by the authors as emerging from what they have learned by "teaching decision analysis to thousands of people in the United States and around the world in university classes and special professional educational programs". The early chapters and certain later chapters are written to be accessible to a general audience. Chapters 1 through 17 introduce the foundations of decision analysis without requiring significant mathematical sophistication. Chapter 26 discusses multi-attribute decision problems…
Operations Research | Decision Theory | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Decision Psychology | Probability/Bayes | Decision Analysis | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Military/Defense | Global -
BookPublication 2013Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools, 3rd Edition
Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools® is a new edition and teaches the fundamental ideas …
Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools® is a new edition and teaches the fundamental ideas of decision analysis, without an overly technical explanation of the mathematics used in decision analysis. This new version has been purposefully written to be more relevant to students in business and engineering compared to previous versions. This new version also incorporates and implements the powerful DecisionTools® software by Palisade Corporation. At the end of each chapter, topics are illustrated with step-by-step instructions…
Preferences/Values | Microsimulation | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Value of Information | Decision Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Military/Defense | Science/Technology | Global | North America | Europe -
BookPublication 2013Handbook of Decision Analysis
This book describes the philosophy, technical concepts, mathematics, and art of decision analysis for the …
This book describes the philosophy, technical concepts, mathematics, and art of decision analysis for the decision professional, and is designed to be supplemental reading for professional decision analysis training courses, a reference for beginning and experienced practitioners, and a supplemental text for an undergraduate or graduate course in decision analysis. The handbook includes chapters on the following topics: decision-making challenges; mathematical foundations of decision analysis; decision analysis soft skills; selecting the decision making process for…
Preferences/Values | Decision Theory | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Probability/Bayes | Value of Information | Decision Analysis | Economics/Finance -
ReviewPublication 1982Decision Analysis: An Overview
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can …
This article, written for the non-decision analyst, describes what decision analysis is, what it can and cannot do, why one should care to do this, and how one does it. Keeney describes decision analysis as "a formalization of common sense for decision problems which are too complex for informal use of common sense." He provides a more technical definition also, describing decision analysis as "a philosophy, articulated by a set of logical axioms, and a methodology…
Preferences/Values | Decision Theory | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Decision Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Military/Defense | Science/Technology -
ReviewPublication 2016Remembering Howard Raiffa
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on …
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on the fields of systems analysis and operations research. He guided the introduction of the decision sciences into numerous fields such as business, medicine, public health, the environmental sciences, and law, and was instrumental in building world-recognized institutions such as the Kennedy School at Harvard and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis near Vienna, Austria. This article is a thoughtful tribute by…
Preferences/Values | Operations Research | Decision Theory | Health/Medicine | Decision Analysis | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Military/Defense | North America -
Teaching PackWeb Portal, Teaching Resource 2023Teaching Pack: Heuristics with Joe Pliskin
This teaching pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, features videos introducing heuristics …
This teaching pack, curated by the Center for Health Decision Science, features videos introducing heuristics used in decision making. While these “mental shortcuts” can be useful in some circumstances, they can lead to more errors than deliberate, rational thinking. An awareness of these heuristics is useful to decision makers. This series of videos on heuristics was developed by Professor Joe Pliskin during his residency with the CHDS Media Hub led by Jake Waxman. They reflect…
Preferences/Values | Decision Theory | Health/Medicine | Decision Psychology | Probability/Bayes | Chronic Disease/Risk | Clinical Care | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | High School | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Quantitative Literacy -
ArticlePublication 2022Vaccinations versus Lockdowns to Prevent COVID-19 Mortality
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly …
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly available datasets from the Israeli Ministry of Health were used to model the parameters of the pandemic in Israel. The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker was used for quantitative data on government policies. Data on the Israeli economy were taken from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The models demonstrate that the first lockdown prevented 1022 COVID-19 deaths at the cost…
Decision Theory | State-Transition | Health/Medicine | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Decision Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Middle East & North Africa