On the Sequential Selection Problem*
重新解读了Kwan和Yuan提出的顺序选择问题，将其视为一个最优搜索问题，并提出了考虑货币时间价值的广义版本，用配对交换法证明了排序策略的最优性。
ABSTRACT Kwan and Yuan [13] considered the sequential selection problem in which an employer should arrange the sequence of interviews with job applicants to fill a position. In this note, it is shown that their selection problem would be alternately interpreted as an optimal search problem or, more specifically, a discrete search problem with a stationary target. A more generalized version of the ordering problem is proposed which explicitly considers the time value of money. Also, the optimality of the ordering strategy in the generalized problem is proven by the pair‐wise exchange method, which is simpler than the induction hypothesis‐based proof. The sequention selection problem is shown to be a special case of the general ordering problem where the discount rate is zero.