The Analytics of Uncertainty and Information or Which Ad Pulled Best

The Analytics of Uncertainty and Information

Author: Jack Hirshleifer

Recent intellectual advances in the theory of uncertainty and information are presented in this book, which unifies many important but partial results into a satisfying single picture, making it clear how the economics of uncertainty and information generalizes and extends standard economic analysis.

Part 1 covers the economics of uncertainty: each person adapts to a given fixed state of knowledge by making an optimal choice among the immediate "terminal" actions available. These choices in turn determine the overall market equilibrium reflecting the social distribution of risk-bearing. In

Part 2, covering the economics of information, the state of knowledge is no longer held fixed, and individuals can overcome their ignorance by "informational" actions. The text also addresses many specific topics such as insurance, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, auctions, deterrence of entry, and research and invention.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
	Introduction: The economics of uncertainty and information	1
1	Elements of decision under uncertainty	7
2	Risk-bearing: the optimum of the individual	43
3	Comparative statics of the risk-bearing optimum	83
4	Market equilibrium under uncertainty	120
5	Information and informational decisions	167
6	The economics of emergent public information	225
7	Research and invention	258
8	Informational asymmetry and contract design	295
9	Strategic uncertainty and equilibrium concepts	330
10	The economics of contests	369
11	Competition and hidden knowledge	405
12	Long-run relationships and the credibility of threats and promises	421
	Index	458

Book review: The United States as a Developing Country or Benefit Cost Analysis

Which Ad Pulled Best?

Author: Scott C Purvis

Focusing on real-world learning about advertising and research, this book shows the reader how to determine the factors that make advertising effective--and ineffective.

Based on actual examples, rather than theory, this updated ninth edition of the successful Which Ad Pulled Best? features interviews with leading advertising experts.

Here readers are given a rare inside view of the planning and ideas behind successful ad campaigns.

Scott Purvis is the president of Gallup & Robinson, Inc.