Two approaches have been used for designing spatial surveys to detect a target. The classical approach controls the probability of missing a target that exists; a Bayesian approach controls the probability that a target exists given that none was seen. In both cases, information about the likely...

Consider the model where particles are initially distributed on Zd,d≥2, according to a Poisson point process of intensity λ0, and are moving in continuous time as independent simple symmetric random walks. We study the escape versus detection problem, in which the target, initially placed at...

Abstract Most scientists consider randomized experiments to be the best method available to establish causality. On the Internet, during the past twenty-five years, randomized experiments have become common, often referred to as A/B testing. For practical reasons, much A/B testing does not use...

Abstract We investigate estimation and inference of the (local) average treatment effect parameter when a binary instrumental variable is generated by a randomized or conditionally randomized experiment. Under i.i.d. sampling, we show that adding covariates and their interactions with the...

Abstract In this paper, we study a credit risk (collateral) management scheme for the Canadian retail payment system designed to cover the exposure of a defaulting member. We estimate ex ante the size of a collateral pool large enough to cover exposure for a historical worst-case default...

Abstract By making gathering large samples of data (Big Data) almost trivial, the Information Revolution has changed fundamentally how many scientists now conduct empirical research. The explosion in the variety and volume of information that is Big Data has in many cases altered both the...

Abstract This paper studies how product customization and consumer privacy affect a monopolist’s incentives to engage in perfect price discrimination. We consider a monopolist that faces an ex ante choice to commit to price discrimination or to a uniform price. We introduce a simple model in...

The present paper analyses the current trends in the IT&C field, according to which IT is delivered to the user as personalized, updated and secured service packages, at reasonable costs. This new technology class is symbolically named Cloud Computing. The agrifood sector is placed on top...

Researchers and practitioners of precision agricultural technology have worked to overcome adoption, cost, and environmental obstacles since its introduction. The next gap in the adoption continuum of profitable precision agricultural technologies is data and data use, the so-called Big Data....

Governments around the world want to develop their ICT and digital industries. Policymakers thus need a clear sense of the size and characteristics of digital businesses, but this is hard to do with conventional datasets and industry codes. This paper uses innovative ‘big data’ resources to...