This course attempts to explore the conceptual implications of formal approaches to decision making, such as Decision Analysis under Uncertainty and Linear Programming, going beyond their mathematical and algorithmic aspects.

In essence it puts on the table issues of the following kind: What is the role of the decision maker in the decision making process? How do formal approaches allow taking into account the decision maker’s own personal traits when considering a decision making process? For example, does it make sense that the very same information is valued differently by two decision makers facing the exact same decision? Or, can two apparently independent decisions become interdependent only because the same decision maker is responsible for them? Why and under what circumstances?

Also, the course tries to drive home a better (even intuitive) understanding of resource allocation decisions. For example by exploiting the conceptual foundation and implications of the shadow prices construct in LP: Optimally allocating resources implicitly assigns a value to them, which depends on their best use possible in the context of available alternatives. This framework suggests alternative and rigorous views - for example, discount rates in finance project evaluations and selection or in firms’ mergers.

It is a short course which doesn’t require a strong mathematical background.