Logical Conditions for Coherent Qualitative and Numerical Probability Assessments

Algorithms for coherence checking and propagation of conditional probability bounds

In this paper, we propose some algorithms for the checking of generalized coherence (g-coherence) and for the extension of imprecise conditional probability assessments. Our concept of g-coherence is a generalization of de Finetti’s coherence principle and is equivalent to the ”avoiding uniform loss” property for lower and upper probabilities (a la Walley). By our algorithms we can check the g-coherence of a given imprecise assessment and we can correct it in order to obtain the associated coherent assessment (in the sense of Walley and Williams). Exploiting some properties of the random gain we show how, in the linear systems involved in our algorithms, we can work with a reduced set of va…

Efficient checking of coherence and propagation of imprecise probability assessments

We consider the computational difficulties in the checking of coherence and propagation of imprecise probability assessments. We examine the linear structure of the random gain in betting criterion and we propose a general methodology which exploits suitable subsets of the set of values of the random gain. In this way the checking of coherence and propagation amount to examining linear systems with a reduced number of unknowns. We also illustrate an example.