The last ten years have seen extensive research effort devoted to problems of multiperiod resource allocation in an uncertain setting. Two primary areas of study have been the theory of optimal growth (e.g., Brock and Mirman, Mirrlees and Mirman and Zilcha) and the multiperiod consumption/savings (portfolio) problem (e.g., Levhari and Srinivasan, Han, Hakansson, Samuelson and Merton).
This paper considers non-cooperative N-person stochastic games with a countable state space and compact metric action spaces. We concentrate upon the average return per unit time criterion for which the existence of an equilibrium policy is established under a number of recurrency conditions with respect to the transition probability matrices associated with the stationary policies.
This paper considers an undiscounted semi-Markov decision problem with denumerable state space and compact metric action spaces. Recurrence conditions on the transition probability matrices associated with the stationary policies are considered and relations between these conditions are established. Also it is shown that under each of these conditions the optimality equation for the average costs has a bounded solution.
This paper considers undiscounted Markov Decision Problems. For the general multichain case, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions which guarantee that the maximal total expected reward for a planning horizon of n epochs minus n times the long run average expected reward has a finite limit as n approaches infinity for each initial state and each final reward vector. In addition, we obtain a characterization of the chain and periodicity structure of the set of one-step and J-step maximal gain policies.
This paper provides a new approach for solving a wide class of Markov decision problems including problems in which the space is general and the system can be continuously controlled. The optimality criterion is the long-run average cost per unit time. We decompose the decision processes into a common underlying stochastic process and a sequence of interventions so that the decision processes can be embedded upon a reduced set of states.
In a preceding paper we have introduced a new approach for solving a wide class of Markov decision problems in which the state-space may be general and the system may be continuously controlled. The criterion is the average cost. This paper discusses two applications of this approach. The first application concerns a house-selling problem in which a constructor builds houses which may be sold at any stage of the construction and potential customers make offers depending on the stage of the construction.
Examines the impact of message to direct mail response on sales. Discussions on the Bales interaction process analysis; Analysis of variance; Correlation between the intention to purchase to attitude towards the magazine.
The purpose of this paper is to study consumer information processing within the context of attitude formation and change. Examination of the cognitive rules used by consumers in manipulating information presented in a persuasive communication seems quite relevant to understanding the impact of such communications. Persuasive communications can be viewed as presenting data to the consumer, who then manipulates and combines those data in the process of forming or changing an attitude.
During the past several years, one of the more intensively studied areas in marketing and consumer research has been multi-attribute models of attitude [36]. The basic proposition of these models is that consumers form attitudes toward products on the basis of product attributes, a formulation which has considerable implications for marketing strategies.