Decision Sciences

Decision Sciences is an interdisciplinary field that draws on economics, machine learning, statistical decision theory, operations research, forecasting, behavioral decision theory and cognitive psychology. Broadly speaking, Decision Sciences at INSEAD addresses three fundamental and inter-related questions. First, how should a "rational" person make decisions? This question is at the heart of economics, and often serves as a baseline for evaluating human decision making. Second, how do people really make decisions? Recent research has explored the ways in which people are "boundedly rational," and utilize rules-of-thumb and shortcuts to formulate judgments and to choose among alternatives. Often these shortcuts do well, but equally often they lead to systematic biases and serious errors. Finally, given what we know about rational decision making and actual behavior, how can we help people, especially managers, improve their decision making? Decision researchers employ a variety of techniques to improve decision making, ranging from sharpening statistical intuition to quantitative decision analysis

Below are descriptions of some of the current research interests of our faculty:

                                                                                                               - Decision Making under Uncertainty
                                                                                                               - Individual and Group Decision Making; Negotiations
                                                                                                               - Machine Learning and AI; Optimization