This dissertation consists of three essays that apply both economic theory and econometric methods to understand design and dynamics of institutions. In particular, it studies how institutions aggregate information and deal with uncertainty and attempts to derive implications for optimal...

Substantial evidence indicates that information is distorted during decision making. However, no studies have assessed the distortion of outcome and probability information in risky decisions or the effects of ambiguity on information distortion. We report two studies involving six binary...

Substantial evidence indicates that information is distorted during decision making. However, no studies have assessed the distortion of outcome and probability information in risky decisions or the effects of ambiguity on information distortion. This paper reports two studies involving six...

EU institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament) have adopted the EU doctrine of the Precautionary Principle (PP) in year 2000, whereas the EU is the sole huge region where something called the PP is implemented and controlled by case law. There is nevertheless a huge contrast between this...

One of the key foundations of sustainable development is the precautionary principle, a concept that has given rise to a considerable amount of controversy. For some, it is a barrier to technological progress and development, for others a means of preventing potentially harmful applications of...

The first European Congress on Agriculturaland Food Ethics was held at Wageningen University andResearch Center (WUR), Wageningen, The Netherlands, March 4–6, 1999. This was the inaugural conference forthe newly forming European Society for Agricultural andFood Ethics – EUR-SAFE – and...

The precautionary principle has been proposed as a basis making decisions about environmental health under conditions of uncertainty, but remains controversial. This paper shows how the precautionary principle may be interpreted as a guide to decision making in complex systems characterised by...