Sequential Analysis.

rare in the jacket

First edition of a revolutionary work in mathematics and decision theory. Uncommon in the dust jacket.

Abraham Wald (1902-1950), a pioneer in the field of operations research, earned his PhD in mathematics at the University of Virginia. He emigrated to the US after the annexation of Austria and worked in econometrics, joining the Columbia faculty in 1941. Wald studied wartime statistics problems as a member of the Statistical Research Group, making the now-famous, counterintuitive determination that it was the damaged parts of military aircraft which returned safely that did not need extra shielding.

Wald is considered the founder of the field of sequential analysis, in which sample sizes in statistical analysis are not pre-determined, but data is analyzed as it is collected, lowering the time and financial costs of research. He focused on sequential analysis as a tool for industrial quality control, but it has found uses in many other fields, most notably pharmaceutical clinical trials.

First edition; 8vo; diagrams within the text, note in blue ink on front free endpaper, contents faintly toned in the margins; original blue cloth, titles to spine and upper board gilt, minor horizontal production flaw to the cloth, lightly rubbed along the edges, a very good copy in the rubbed and partially toned jacket with a few small chips; 212pp.