Louis Eeckhoudt - Böcker

An understanding of risk and how to deal with it is an essential part of modern economics. Whether liability litigation for pharmaceutical firms or an individual's having insufficient wealth to retire, risk is something that can be recognized, quantified, analyzed, treated--and incorporated into our decision-making processes. This book represents a concise summary of basic multiperiod decision-making under risk. Its detailed coverage of a broad range of topics is ideally suited for use in advanced undergraduate and introductory graduate courses either as a self-contained text, or the introductory chapters combined with a selection of later chapters can represent core reading in courses on macroeconomics, insurance, portfolio choice, or asset pricing. The authors start with the fundamentals of risk measurement and risk aversion. They then apply these concepts to insurance decisions and portfolio choice in a one-period model. After examining these decisions in their one-period setting, they devote most of the book to a multiperiod context, which adds the long-term perspective most risk management analyses require.Each chapter concludes with a discussion of the relevant literature and a set of problems. The book presents a thoroughly accessible introduction to risk, bridging the gap between the traditionally separate economics and finance literatures.

The Salvelinus species is one of the most thoroughly studied groups of fishes and there are many reasons for this intense interest in charr biology. Charr have an Holarctic distribution encompassing many Asian, North American and European countries and occupy diverse marine and freshwater environments. Furthermore, the current distribution of charr includes areas that were directly influenced by climate and topographic change associated with the many Pleistocene glaciations. Undoubtedly, these conditions have promoted much of the tremendous morphological, ecological and genetic variability and plasticity within Salvelinus species and they make charr very good models to study evolutionary processes "in action". Many charr species also exhibit demographic characteristics such as slow growth, late maturity and life in extreme environments, that may increase their susceptibility to extinction from habitat changes and overexploitation, especially in depauperate aquatic habitats. This vulnerability makes understanding their biology of great relevance to biodiversity and conservation.Finally, charr are of great cultural, commercial and recreational significance to many communities, and their intimate linkage with human societies has stimulated much interest in this enigmatic genus. This volume comprises of a selection of papers presented at the fourth International Charr Symposium held in Trois-Rivieres (Quebec, Canada), from 26 June to 1 July 2000. It includes 31 papers on ecological interactions and behaviour, trophic polymorphism, movement and migration, ecophysiology and evolutionary genetics, ecological parasitology, environmental stress and conservation. These studies cannot cover all recent developments in the ecology, behaviour and conservation of Salvelinus species, but collecting them into one volume should bring attention to current research on this important genus and stimulate further work on Salvelinus species.

For people interested in risk management, medical activity represents a stimulating field of study and thought. On the one hand, progress in medical knowledge and technology tends to reduce the risks to survival that individuals would face in the absence of appropriate diagnostic or therapeutic instruments. On the other hand, new medical technologies simultaneously create their own specific risks, sometimes simply because their effects are less well known than those of established ones. In a sense any medical progress simultaneously generates new risks that can be either divided or transferred to others (for example, through diversification, insurance or social security). The personal aspects of medical risks are by essence indivisible and non-transferable, as a result, they are in a sense more threatening than financial risks for risk adverse patients. These two facts explain and justify the growing interest in risk economics for the fields of medical decision-making and health economics.