We use quasi-random variation in the fraction of time served in the Italian “open-cell prison” of Bollate to estimate the effect of rehabilitation efforts on recidivism. We deal with the endogeneity of rehabilitation assignments by focussing on those sources of variability in the length of...

We build a simple model of trust as an equilibrium phenomenon, departing from standard "selfish" preferences in a minimal way. Agents who are on the receiving end of an other to transact can choose whether to cheat and take away the entire surplus, taking into account a "cost of cheating." The...

To achieve robustness, a decision criterion that recently has been widely adopted is Wald's minimax, after Gilboa and Schmeidler (1989) showed that (one generalisation of) it can be given an axiomatic foundation with a behavioural interpretation. Yet minimax has known drawbacks. A better...