This book comprises lecture notes for a graduate-level class in decision under uncertainty. After teaching such classes for many years, it became more difficult to squeeze all the material into class discussions, and I was not quite sure about the appropriate order in which the issues should be presented. Trying to put everything in writing, and thereby finding at least one permutation of topics that makes sense, is supposed to help me forget less and confuse the students less. As a by-product, the notes may be useful to students who miss classes or who wish to know what the course is about without having to show up every week.

The graduate classes I normally teach are geared toward students who want to do research in economics and related fields. It is assumed that they have taken a basic microeconomic sequence at the graduate level. In teaching the class, I hope that I can convince some students that decision theory is a beautiful topic and that this is what they want to do when they grow up. But I'm fully aware of the fact that this is not going to be the case for the majority of the students. I therefore attempt to teach the course with a much more general audience in mind, focusing on the way decision theory may affect the research done in economics at large, as well as in finance, political science, and other fellow disciplines.