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OPTIMIZATION METHODS FOR A STAKEHOLDER SOCIETY A REVOLUTION IN ECONOMIC THINKING BY MULTIOBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION WILLEM K. BRAUERS Kluwer Academic Publishers Boston/Dordrecht/London
Short description For both public and private managers, the book “optimization methods for a stakeholder society; a revolution in economic thinking by multiobjective optimization” is today’s key to answer the problem of a sustainable development world. This world has to take into account the meaning of all stakeholders involved and has to reconcile a number of objectives, such as economic growth, employment and preservation of the ecosystem. Traditional methods, such as Cost-Benefit, are passed as they translate all these objectives into monetary costs, a materialistic approach. On the contrary, objectives have rather to stick to their own units, eventually indicators. The author stands up for the use of nonlinear methods in multiobjective optimization. Therefore, several nonlinear approaches are proposed, illustrated with many applications from diverse fields such as: privatization in the public sector, regional versus national economic policy in a country, location of a seaport, arms procurement, industrialization of a developing country, updating or replacement of old industry, pre- and post-evaluation of projects, performance management, marketing and distribution.
Intended audience This book is intended for both public and private managers and for researchers in the areas of applied mathematics, engineering, economics, operation research, decision and management sciences. It is meant for professionals and practitioners in the field of multiobjective optimization.
Overview of the contents The book is divided in six parts. In a first part the link is made with traditional economics, whereas the second part shows the advent of new economics. The third part brings the new economics for a stakeholder society with, as much as possible, an optimization of the fulfillment of the aspirations of the individual and of all the stakeholders. However, despite hierarchy, filtering, indifference and dominance, objectives and alternatives could remain incomparable. This concerns the core of the problem.
2 Linear solutions with weights are not very welcome. They choose for extremities with no chances for in-between solutions. With weights a superobjective is created. Moreover, convex linearity contradicts the economic law of decreasing marginal utility. In order to solve these problems, Reference Point Theory is proposed in the fourth part of the book. In the fifth part another nonlinear approach is presented, namely Multiplicative Representation. In the sixth part the question is posited, if still another approach, namely Ratio Analysis, represents a control mechanism on the previous approaches, or can be considered as an additional nonlinear theory. Each nonlinear theory is illustrated with many examples and applications. The reader who is especially interested in nonlinear methods for optimization with different independent objectives, could immediately start with: Part IV: Reference Point Theory, Part V: Multiplicative Representation and Part VI: Ratio Analysis for Multiobjective Utility Theory with feedback for clarification by the preceding parts.
The Author Professor Dr WILLEM K. BRAUERS, Faculty of Applied Economics and Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Antwerp, was graduated as Master of Arts (in economics) of Columbia University (New York) and Ph D of the Catholic University of Louvain. Previously, he was professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, the Belgian War College, the School of Military Administrators, and the Antwerp Business School. He was consultant in the public sector, such as the Belgian Department of National Defense, the Department of Industry in Thailand, the project for the construction of the port of Arzew in Algeria and in the private sector such as the international seaport of Antwerp and in electrical works.
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Brauers, Willem K.
Optimization Methods for a Stakeholder Society: A Revolution in Economic Thinking by Multi-objective Optimization ISBN 1-4020-7681-9
Copyright 2004 by Kluwer Academic Publishers Printed in the United States of America
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