Interactions between ageing and risk properties in the analysis of burn-in problems

Several relevant problems in reliability can be looked at as problems of risk management and of decisions in the face of uncertainty. However, in this frame, the so-called burn-in problem can be seen as a problem of risk taking par excellence. In this paper, we in particular point out some aspects concerning interactions between the probabilistic model for lifetimes and considerations of an economic kind. As one of the features of our work, we hinge on some unexplored connections between ageing properties of a one-dimensional survival function NG and risk-aversion-type properties of the function u(t)=bG(t), b > 0, when the latter is seen as a utility function. ©2012 INFORMS.