Introduction

Abstract

Almost everyone these days is familiar with the concept of Probability. Each day we are told the probability that it will rain the next day; frequently we discuss the probabilities of winning a lottery or surviving the crash of an airplane. The insurance industry calculates (for example) the probability that a man or woman will live past his or her eightieth birthday, given he or she is 22 years old and applying for life insurance. Probability is used in business too: for example, when deciding to build a waiting area in a restaurant, one wants to calculate the probability of needing space for more than n people each day; a bank wants to calculate the probability a loan will be repaid; a manufacturer wants to calculate the probable demand for his product in the future. In medicine a doctor needs to calculate the probability of success of various alternative remedies; drug companies calculate the probability of harmful side effects of drugs. An example that has recently achieved spectacular success is the use of Probability in Economics, and in particular in Stochastic Finance Theory. Here interest rates and security prices (such as stocks, bonds, currency exchanges) are modeled as varying randomly over time but subject to specific probability laws; one is then able to provide insurance products (for example) to investors by using these models. One could go on with such a list. Probability theory is ubiquitous in modern society and in science.