This book is designed to help readers analyze, make economic tradeoffs and choose wisely in complex decision problems where uncertainty, for all practical purposes, can be ignored. The authors focus on decisions involving relevant costs and revenues, pricing, constraints, the time value of money, and the use of scenarios, or what if analysis.

These authors draw on nearly 50 years of combined teaching and consulting experience to give readers a straightforward yet systematic approach for making estimates about the likelihood and consequences of future events -- and then using those assessments to arrive at sound decisions. The book's real-world cases, supplemented with expository text and spreadsheets, help readers master such techniques as decision trees and simulation, such concepts as probability, the value of information, and strategic gaming; and such applications as inventory stocking problems, bidding situations, and negotiating.

David Hume (1711-1776) is perhaps best known for his treatises on problems of epistemology, skepticism, and causation. A less familiar side of his intellectual output is his work on legal and political theory. David Hume's Political Theory brings together Hume's diverse writings on law and government, collected and examined with a view to revealing the philosopher's coherent and persuasive theory of politics. Through close textual analysis, Neil McArthur suggests that the key to Hume's political theory lies in its distinction between barbarous and civilized government. Throughout the study, the author explores Hume's argument that a society's progress from barbarism to civilization depends on the legal and political system by which it is governed. Ultimately, McArthur demonstrates that the skepticism apparent in much of Hume's work does not necessarily tie him to a strict conservative ideology; rather, Hume's political theory is seen to emphasize many liberal virtues as well. Based on a new conception of Hume's political philosophy, this is a groundbreaking work and a welcome addition to the existing literature.

In this title, originally published in 1984, Wilman develops and describes a methodology for imputing a monetary value to the loss in beach recreational services that would result from a hypothetical oil spill in the Georges Bank area off Massachusetts. Combining an oil-spill risk analysis model with an hedonic pricing model to generate estimates of beach pollution costs associated with offshore oil development, Wilman makes possible for the first time a rational judgement regarding whether the benefits of developing offshore oil outweigh the costs. This book is a valuable resource for students interested in environmental studies and Wilman’s methodological approach can be used to value other nonmarket resource services in any area.