Ranking risky alternatives: Innovations in subjective utility analysis

Abstract

Over the past 50 years there have been innovations in the quantitative methods available to rank risky alternatives (mean-variance (MV), first degree stochastic dominance (FSD), and second degree stochastic dominance (SDS)). Two recent innovations, stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF) and StopLight are compared to MV, FSD, and SDS to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of each method. The results indicate that SERF and Stoplight are powerful tools that do not suffer from some of the limitations as the other risk ranking methods.