DeKay Receives Award to Study Single and Repeated Play Decisions

      Michael DeKay (Heinz/EPP) has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study “Single-Play and Repeated Play Decisions with Fungible and Non-Fungible Outcomes.”
      Something is fungible if one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in the satisfaction of an obligation. Oil, grain, and money are usually considered to be fungible. In the context of repeated monetary gambles, the money won in one gamble can replace the money lost in another, dollar for dollar. In other decision contexts, the outcomes of repeated trials may not be fungible. Consider, for example, a medical practice guideline that recommends surgery for a particular ailment. In one instance, successful surgery may extend the patient’s life by some number of years. In another instance, unsuccessful surgery may result in the patient’s immediate death. The life lost by the second patient cannot, in any real sense, be replaced by an equal quantity of life from the first patient.
      Perceived fungibility is important because it may affect how people make decisions. When considering decisions about monetary gambles, people often make different decisions when they can play the gamble many times instead of just once, because they realize that the money won in one gamble can replace the money lost in another. For example, many people would decline a gamble that provides a 50% chance of a $200 gain and a 50% chance of a $100 loss (a single-play decision), but would readily accept a series of 10 or 100 plays of the same gamble (a repeated-play decision). However, when outcomes are perceived to be non-fungible, as in the surgery example above, it is expected that people will not make different decisions when there are multiple patients instead of just one, because good outcomes do not really offset bad outcomes.

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      and societal terms, as well as management and policy issues as related to IT. It will prepare students to design and deploy enterprise information systems in private and public sector settings. The BSc will prepare graduates to be broader and more flexible IT professionals who can work at the interface of business and technology.” Details on the new school, which Miller believes is the first of its kind, can be found at
http://www.smu.edu.sg/sections/
schools/information.asp.
      Carnegie Mellon is assisting the development of the new school through a four-year agreement under which it is sharing its best practices and providing counsel to SES’s education programs and a research center.
      Miller notes that “Carnegie Mellon brings a wealth of educational experience in technology, business and policy programs and integration across these areas. SMU recognizes the value of providing students with a multi-disciplinary educational experience. With this partnership, our program will be greatly enhanced.”
      SIS will admit a first undergraduate class of 100 students in August and hopes to have over 600 at all levels by 2006. Miller is also working with Carnegie Mellon to establish a research institute and postgraduate programs.
      Steve Miller can be reached at stevenmiller@smu.edu.sg. Ted Tschang can be reached attedt@smu.edu.sg.