In a seminal paper, Becker (1968) showed that the most efficient way to deter crime is to impose the severest possible penalty (to maintain adequate deterrence) with the lowest possible probability (to economize on costs of enforcement). We shall call this the Becker proposition (BP). The BP is...

In federal court and many state courts across the United States, once a defendant is convicted, judges are routinely permitted, and in fact, sometimes required to increase a defendant’s sentence based on relevant conduct, of which he was acquitted at trial, or conduct for which he was never...

This paper concludes that, when offenders are wealth constrained and the government is resource constrained and can commit to a certain policy throughout the whole planning horizon, cost minimizing deterrence is decreasing, rather than increasing, in the number of offenses. By extending the...

Within this paper, we present an interactive modelling approach to support budgeting decisions at the program level and discuss its potential and limitations to contribute to more objective-oriented policy-making. The central feature of the approach is a linear optimisation model which is...

The aim of cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) is to inform the allocation of scarce resources. CEA is routinely used in assessing the cost-effectiveness of specific health technologies by agencies such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England and Wales. But...

After a brief description of the role and functions of digital information systems, we examine, within the conception of these systems, the decisive breaks resulting from technological advances. Then, we clarify the problem of “capitalizing on company’s knowledge” in order to introduce a...

Organising participation of multiple stakeholders is nowadays a widespread request in decision processes, especially for organisations managing environmental risks. Therefore, analysts delivering decision support are expected to provide decision makers with scientifically sound and practically...

Organising participation of multiple stakeholders is nowadays a widespread request in decision processes, especially for organisations managing environmental risks. Therefore, analysts delivering decision support are expected to provide decision makers with scientifically sound and practically...

After a brief description of the role and functions of digital information systems, we examine, within the conception of these systems, the decisive breaks resulting from technological advances. Then, we clarify the problem of “capitalizing on company’s knowledge” in order to introduce a...

Producers lack information about the profitability of variable rate technology (VRT) for agricultural sprayers. An economic framework was developed to evaluate the returns required to pay for VRT investments. Payback variables included input savings, yield gains, and reduced application costs....