A bibliography on stochastic orderings. Was there a real need for it? In a time of reference databases as the MathSci or the Science Citation Index or the Social Science Citation Index the answer seems to be negative. The reason we think that this bibliog raphy might be of some use stems from the frustration that we, as workers in the field, have often experienced by finding similar results being discovered and proved over and over in different journals of different disciplines with different levels of mathematical so phistication and accuracy and most of the times without cross references. Of course it would be very unfair to blame an economist, say, for not knowing a result in mathematical physics, or vice versa, especially when the problems and the languages are so far apart that it is often difficult to recognize the analogies even after further scrutiny. We hope that collecting the references on this topic, regardless of the area of application, will be of some help, at least to pinpoint the problem. We use the term stochastic ordering in a broad sense to denote any ordering relation on a space of probability measures. Questions that can be related to the idea of stochastic orderings are as old as probability itself. Think for instance of the problem of comparing two gambles in order to decide which one is more favorable.

This book is an introductionary course in stochastic ordering and dependence in the field of applied probability for readers with some background in mathematics. It is based on lectures and senlinars I have been giving for students at Mathematical Institute of Wroclaw University, and on a graduate course a.t Industrial Engineering Department of Texas A&M University, College Station, and addressed to a reader willing to use for example Lebesgue measure, conditional expectations with respect to sigma fields, martingales, or compensators as a common language in this field. In Chapter 1 a selection of one dimensional orderings is presented together with applications in the theory of queues, some parts of this selection are based on the recent literature (not older than five years). In Chapter 2 the material is centered around the strong stochastic ordering in many dimen sional spaces and functional spaces. Necessary facts about conditioning, Markov processes an"d point processes are introduced together with some classical results such as the product formula and Poissonian departure theorem for Jackson networks, or monotonicity results for some re newal processes, then results on stochastic ordering of networks, re~~ment policies and single server queues connected with Markov renewal processes are given. Chapter 3 is devoted to dependence and relations between dependence and ordering, exem plified by results on queueing networks and point processes among others.

This book emphasizes the use of stochastic orders as motivational tools for developing new statistical procedures. Stochastic orders have found useful applications in many disciplines, including reliability theory, survival analysis, risk theory, finance, nonparametric methods, economics and actuarial science. Written by a statistician, this volume clarifies the connection between stochastic orders and nonparametric methods. The importance of order statistics and spacings is well recognized. Classically, they mainly focus on the case when the observations are independent and identically distributed, however, several new developments have extended the comparison of order statistics to the case of non-identically distributed or non-independent observations. In addition to giving a detailed discussion of various topics in the general area of stochastic orders, a substantial part of the book is devoted to recent research on stochastic comparisons of order statistics and spacings, including a long chapter on dependence among them. The book will be useful for graduate students and researchers in statistics, economics, actuarial science and other related disciplines. In particular, with close to 300 references, it will be a valuable resource for reliability theorists, applied probabilists and statisticians. Readers are expected to have taken a first-year graduate level course in mathematical statistics or in applied probability.

Stochastic orders and inequalities are being used at an accelerated rate in many diverse areas of probability and statistics. This book provides the first unified, systematic, and accessible treatment of stochasticorders, addressing the growing importance of these orders with the presentation of numerous results that illustrate their usefulness and applicability. Ten insightful chapters emphasize the applications by specialists in probability and statistics, economics, operations research, and reliability theory. Applications include multivariate variability, epidemics, comparisons of risk and risk aversion, scheduling, and systems reliability theory.

Applied Probability and Stochastic Processes is an edited work written in honor of Julien Keilson. This volume has attracted a host of scholars in applied probability, who have made major contributions to the field, and have written survey and state-of-the-art papers on a variety of applied probability topics, including, but not limited to: perturbation method, time reversible Markov chains, Poisson processes, Brownian techniques, Bayesian probability, optimal quality control, Markov decision processes, random matrices, queueing theory and a variety of applications of stochastic processes. The book has a mixture of theoretical, algorithmic, and application chapters providing examples of the cutting-edge work that Professor Keilson has done or influenced over the course of his highly-productive and energetic career in applied probability and stochastic processes. The book will be of interest to academic researchers, students, and industrial practitioners who seek to use the mathematics of applied probability in solving problems in modern society.

This reference text presents comprehensive coverage of the various notions of stochastic orderings, their closure properties, and their applications. Some of these orderings are routinely used in many applications in economics, finance, insurance, management science, operations research, statistics, and various other fields. And the value of the other notions of stochastic orderings needs further exploration. This book is an ideal reference for those interested in decision making under uncertainty and interested in the analysis of complex stochastic systems. It is suitable as a text for advanced graduate course on stochastic ordering and applications.

Stochastic Orders in Reliability and Risk Management is composed of 19 contributions on the theory of stochastic orders, stochastic comparison of order statistics, stochastic orders in reliability and risk analysis, and applications. These review/exploratory chapters present recent and current research on stochastic orders reported at the International Workshop on Stochastic Orders in Reliability and Risk Management, or SORR2011, which took place in the City Hotel, Xiamen, China, from June 27 to June 29, 2011. The conference’s talks and invited contributions also represent the celebration of Professor Moshe Shaked, who has made comprehensive, fundamental contributions to the theory of stochastic orders and its applications in reliability, queueing modeling, operations research, economics and risk analysis. This volume is in honor of Professor Moshe Shaked. The work presented in this volume represents active research on stochastic orders and multivariate dependence, and exemplifies close collaborations between scholars working in different fields. The Xiamen Workshop and this volume seek to revive the community workshop tradition on stochastic orders and dependence and strengthen research collaboration, while honoring the work of a distinguished scholar.

A bibliography on stochastic orderings. Was there a real need for it? In a time of reference databases as the MathSci or the Science Citation Index or the Social Science Citation Index the answer seems to be negative. The reason we think that this bibliog raphy might be of some use stems from the frustration that we, as workers in the field, have often experienced by finding similar results being discovered and proved over and over in different journals of different disciplines with different levels of mathematical so phistication and accuracy and most of the times without cross references. Of course it would be very unfair to blame an economist, say, for not knowing a result in mathematical physics, or vice versa, especially when the problems and the languages are so far apart that it is often difficult to recognize the analogies even after further scrutiny. We hope that collecting the references on this topic, regardless of the area of application, will be of some help, at least to pinpoint the problem. We use the term stochastic ordering in a broad sense to denote any ordering relation on a space of probability measures. Questions that can be related to the idea of stochastic orderings are as old as probability itself. Think for instance of the problem of comparing two gambles in order to decide which one is more favorable.