An Alternative Approach to Decisions under Uncertainty Using the Empirical Moment‐Generating Function

Objections to mean‐variance analysis center on the requirement that the distributions be normal or the resulting inattention to higher‐order moments when the solution is viewed as an approximation. A nonparametric approach to decision making under uncertainty is developed in this paper using expected utility maximization, the exponential utility function, and an empirical moment‐generating function. A decision rule is obtained for land allocation under uncertainty which is not tied to a particular family of distributions and accounts for all moments of the distribution.