Optimal Sequentially Planned Decision Procedures - Norbert Schmitz

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Résumé :
Learning from experience, making decisions on the basis of the available information, and proceeding step by step to a desired goal are fundamental behavioural qualities of human beings. Nevertheless, it was not until the early 1940's that such a statistical theory - namely Sequential Analysis - was created, which allows us to investigate this kind of behaviour in a precise manner. A. Wald's famous sequential probability ratio test (SPRT; see example (1.8? turned out to have an enormous influence on the development of this theory. On the one hand, Wald's fundamental monograph Sequential Analysis ([Wa]*) is essentially centered around this test. On the other hand, important properties of the SPRT - e.g. Bayes? optimality, minimax-properties, uniform optimality with respect to expected sample sizes - gave rise to the development of a general statistical decision theory. As a conse? quence, the SPRT's played a dominating role in the further development of sequential analysis and, more generally, in theoretical statistics.

Biographie:
Manfred Breithaupt ist Senior Planning Officer der Energie- und Transportabteilung der Deutschen Gesellschaft f?r Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH in Eschborn. Horst H?fling f?hrt seit ?ber 20 Jahren als Diplom-Ingenieur der Elektrotechnik Energieprojekte f?r die GTZ. Lars Petzold ist Seniorberater der Kienbaum Development Services GmbH in D?sseldorf. Christine Philipp ist Diplom-Volkswirtin und Mitarbeiterin der Kienbaum Development Services GmbH in D?sseldorf. Dr. Norbert Schmitz ist Gesch?ftsleiter der Kienbaum Development Services GmbH in D?sseldorf. Dr. Rolf S?lzer ist Direktor des GTZ-Landesb?ros Thailand in Bangkok....

Sommaire:
This volume is concerned with statistical procedures where the data are collected in sequentially designed groups which retain the possibility of early stopping and remove some of the disadvantages of one-at-a-time sampling. In particular, for generalizations of the SPRT algorithms, methods for computing characteristics (such as operating characteristics or power functions, expected sampling costs, etc.) are developed and implemented....