Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to the strategy in game theory that minimizes the maximum risk for a player.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun In decision theory, game theory, etc. a decision rule used for minimizing the maximum possible loss, or maximizing the minimum gain.
  • verb To find the optimum play, or decision, to achieve minimizing the maximum loss.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[mini(mum) + max(imum).]

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Examples

  • This strategy would later be dubbed "minimax lookahead."

    Ars Technica Matthew Lasar 2011

  • I agree somewhat with the sentiment, but I think you’re taking it a little too far, the damage to infrastructure and the economy from nuclear bombings would be greater than the equivalent number of traffic deaths, also cars aren’t thinking opponents, but terrorists are, so that justifies taking what game theorists would call a minimax strategy.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Car Bomb Found in Times Square? 2010

  • Thus, it will be necessary to register in the proper trade department, store, shop or "minimax," whatever kind of store there is, in the rural sectors and in the cities.

    CASTRO RADIO AND TV INTERVIEW 1961

  • I agree somewhat with the sentiment, but I think you’re taking it a little too far, the damage to infrastructure and the economy from nuclear bombings would be greater than the equivalent number of traffic deaths, also cars aren’t thinking opponents, but terrorists are, so that justifies taking what game theorists would call a minimax strategy.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Car Bomb Found in Times Square? 2010

  • They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

    Matthew Yglesias » Bernanke Suddenly in Trouble 2010

  • When you include the domestic political calculus, choice #2 may unfortunately be the minimax decision in this situation.

    Matthew Yglesias » Getting Closer to Nowhere 2009

  • Its aims were shaped by an extreme tail event (the Great Depression) and were explicitly minimax (to avoid a repetition).

    Costs and consequences 2010

  • Or we might consider the more risk-averse rule, the minimax principle: choose that action with the least bad worst possible outcome.

    What to do? Daniel Little 2008

  • Or we might consider the more risk-averse rule, the minimax principle: choose that action with the least bad worst possible outcome.

    Archive 2008-10-01 Daniel Little 2008

  • It is very similar to Gauthier's (1986) “minimax relative concession” solution.

    Economics and Economic Justice Fleurbaey, Marc 2008

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