Beyond Expected Utility: Risk Concepts for Agriculture from a Contemporary Mathmatical Perspective

Expected utility theory, the most prominent economic model of how individuals choose among alternative rists, exhibits serious deficiencies in describing empirically observed behavior. Consequently, economists are actively searching for a new paradigm to describe behavior under risk. Their mathematical tools, such as functional analysis and measure theory, reflect a new, more sophisticated approach to risk. This article describes the new approach, explains several of the mathematical concepts used, and indicates some of their connections to agricultural modeling.