Maximization of an asymmetric utility function by the least squares

Abstract

This note points out that a utility maximization procedure proposed in an earlier paper may be reduced to the least squares. The utility function is asymmetric in the sense that for each cue its ideal value and the permissible range are assigned in such a way that the ideal is not necessarily at the center of the range, like »a beer of 350 ml would be ideal, but acceptable if within [100, 500]«. A practical consequence of the observation is that very little programming will be needed to deploy the utility maximization since software for the least squares is widely available.