ABSTRACT
Much statistical work focuses on problems of inference, as indicated by the contents of this book. Given some information, but not complete information, about certain events, variables, or model parameters, the statistician attempts to make inferential statements about their values. Under conditions of uncertainty, inferences may be of interest, but frequently the interest goes beyond inferences. Many important decisions are made in the face of uncertainty, and it is often useful to model such decision-making problems. The modeling effort can help the decision maker to understand the problem better and can point the way toward a "good" decision.
