Expected Utility from Multinomial Second-order Probability Distributions

we consider the problem of maximizing expected utility when utilities and probabilities are given by discrete probability distributions so that expected utility is a discrete stochastic variable. as for discrete second-order distributions, that is probability distributions where the variables are themselves probabilities, the multinomial family is a reasonable choice at least if first-order probabilities are interpreted as relative frequencies. we suggest a decision rule that reflects the uncertainty present in distribution-based probabilities and utilities and we show an example of this rule in action with multinomial second-order distributions.