Decision-theoretic ideas can structure the process of inference together with the decision-making that inference supports. Statistical decision theory is the sub-discipline of statistics which explores and develops this structure. Typically, discusion of decision theory within one discipline does not recognise that other disciplines may have considered the same or similar problems. This text, Volume 9 in the prestigious Kendall's Library of Statistics, provides an overview of the main ideas and concepts of statistical decision theory and sets it within the broader concept of decision theory, decision analysis and decision support as they are practised in many disciplines beyond statistics - including artificial intelligence, economics, operational research, philosophy and psychology.

Simon French is the author of Statistical Decision Theory: Kendall's Library of Statistics 9, published by Wiley. David Ríos Insua is a Spanish mathematician, and son and disciple of Sixto Ríos, father of Spanish Statistics. He is currently also the youngest Fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, which he joined in 2008. He received a PhD in Computational Sciences at the University of Leeds.