
86 Decision Based Design
The above equation can be solved numerically to yield b = 20, which
makes a equal to 0.3029. The utility function is given by
U(x) = 0.3029 log(20x + 1)
Note that the utility function we chose is not unique, and we could have cho-
sen a different functional form just as easily. The basic properties we want to
be able to reflect are ordering (more is better, or the other way around) and
risk attitude. Depending on the scope of the decision, one can try different
functional forms to get the best utility function to reflect the preferences.
3.9 Stochastic and Deterministic Dominance
One nal topic we will discuss, before we m ...