Empirical evidence of the marginal deterrent effect is provided. Exploring a data set of kidnapping crimes in Italy between 1960 and 2012, changes in Italian policy regarding sanctions for kidnapping and their associated impact on murders is considered. Deaths associated with kidnappings...

The interaction between a sophisticated player and a fictitious player is analyzed and applied to the problem of optimal enforcement. An adaptive potential offender myopically responds to the history of past enforcement. How can a sophisticated enforcement official take advantage of this...

The identical agent, identical good Bertrand game is associated with prices at marginal cost — the Bertrand Paradox. If consumers make occasional mistakes I show that the standard Bertrand game gives rise to positive profits and prices above marginal cost. Some firms charge low prices to...

The use of a taser by law enforcement can substitute for either a gun (a more-violent technology) or a mildly-violent technology (such as pepper spray or hands-on tactics). Which is used affects both the severity of harm when used and the amount of resistance, which affects how often it must be...

The author describes a course designed to build the critical thinking skills of undergraduate economics students. The course introduces and uses game theory to study the Bible. Students gain experience using game theory to formalize events and, by drawing parallels between the Bible and common...

Labour raiding refers to firms recruiting and hiring employed workers. The literature on labour raiding supports the idea that raiding sorts workers into their most productive positions. I present a model where an outside firm decides whether or not to pay to learn the match-quality of an...

A price takes the form of a cost for either one unit (single-unit pricing) or multiple units (multi-unit pricing). I consider a monopolist selling units of a good to a population of homogeneous consumers to explain why one is preferred to the other. A mental cost arises if the division problem a...

"I present a model where a regulator monitors compliance with a policy by a population of individuals, some of whom repeatedly prefer to violate the policy, while others only occasionally want to experiment. I show that the regulator can use sanctions, contingent on past violations of the...

Expert opinion aids consumers purchasing a good they have no personal experience with. Previous research has found little to no impact of expert opinion on price. Evidence from panels of cigar reviewers shows that the explanatory power of the experts’ rating improves as more reviews are used.