Differential importance and comparative statics: An application to inventory management

In this work, we deal with the problem of establishing which parameters impact an inventory policy the most. A new sensitivity measure (Gamma) is introduced by relating the differential importance (D) and the comparative statics (CS) techniques. We discuss the properties of the new indicator, and show that it shares the additivity property. We provide the expression of Gamma for optimization models. Numerical results are offered for the sensitivity analysis of a recently introduced inventory management model. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.