Comments on: The St. Petersburg Paradox: a flimsy critique of expectation theory by people who don’t know math or economics

By: ian

ian — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:39:43 +0000

I suggest that a third solution is that all parties are expected to be rational – both player and casino
As the payout is infinite, so necessarily is the price to play.
Do you, or can you play?
This is an example of nonsense economics
Cheers, but thanks

By: bob

bob — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:08:20 +0000

A simpler example you could use would be: would you be willing to pay 100% of your income to have a 1 in 500 decillion chance of winning infinity dollars? One would say no, despite the fact that the expected value is infinite. (Of course, infinity isn’t a number, but I hope you get the idea despite the flaws).

By: Presh Talwalkar

Presh Talwalkar — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:38:44 +0000

Thanks, that paper is interesting.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:05:52 +0000

You may find this an interesting link:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1011/1011.4404v2.pdf

By: mupeter

mupeter — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:30:41 +0000

ERROR: The sum converges to 1, since the index i starts with 1, not with 0!