Who Should Pay for Interdependent Risk? Policy Implications for Security Interdependence Among Airports

We study interdependent risks in security, and shed light on the economic and policy implications of increasing security interdependence in presence of reactive attackers. We investigate the impact of potential public policy arrangements on the security of a group of interdependent organizations, namely, airports. Focusing on security expenditures and costs to society, as assessed by a social planner, to individual airports and to attackers, we first develop a game-theoretic framework, and derive explicit Nash equilibrium and socially optimal solutions in the airports network. We then conduct numerical experiments mirroring real-world cyber scenarios, to assess how a change in interdependence impact the airports' security expenditures, the overall expected costs to society, and the fairness of security financing. Our study provides insights on the economic and policy implications for the United States, Europe, and Asia.     

Towards Bayesian image analysis

Many of the tasks encountered in image processing can be considered as problems in statistical inference. In particular, they fit naturally into a subjectivist Bayesis framework. In this paper, we describe the Bayesian approach to image analysis. Numerical examples are not included but references are given. It is argued that the Bayesian approach, still in its infancy, has considerable potential for future development.     

Immigrants and alien workers

VII. Conclusion The number of immigrants now coming to the United States is proportionally only a fraction of the number that came in earlier years, and there is nothing in those numbers to suggest a difficult absorption burden. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, more than pay for the services they use with the taxes they pay, leaving a considerable net surplus that benefits American citizens. Immigrants raise productivity and do not cause an observable amount of unemployment of citizens. Admitting far more immigrants into the country than the law now allows would have positive effects on the incomes of citizens, and would enhance the continuing vitality of the United States.     

The Road Less Traveled: Emotions and Morality in Public Controversies: A Response to Brian Lowe

Qualitative Sociology -     

Social choice with analytic preferences

Arrow's axioms for social welfare functions are shown to be inconsistent when the set of alternatives is the nonnegative orthant in a multidimensional Euclidean space and preferences are assumed to be either the set of analytic classical economic preferences or the set of Euclidean spatial preferences. When either of these preference domains is combined with an agenda domain consisting of compact sets with nonempty interiors, strengthened versions of the Arrovian social choice correspondence axioms are shown to be consistent. To help establish the economic possibility theorem, an ordinal version of the Analytic Continuation Principle is developed. Received: 4 July 2000/Accepted: 2 April 2001     

“读图时代”新闻摄影真实性的坚守

随着照相手机、数码相机以及网络的盛行,人们已经进入了"读图时代",由此产生了各种失实图片.对新闻摄影行业和新闻真实性原则造成了巨大冲击.为此,在"读图时代"只有坚持和维护新闻摄影的真实性原则,强化新闻从业人员的职业道德修养和专业素养,建立健全完善的行业相关机制,以法律人,才能创造一个良好的媒体环境.     

Interpersonal dependency of preferences

Standard decision theoretic models disregard the phenomenon of interpersonal dependency of preferences. In this paper it is argued that interpersonal dependency of preferences is a serious challenge for standard utility theory. First we sketch the more philosophical aspects of the problem and then, using a simple, formal model for the two-person case, we show that interpersonal dependency of preferences generally results in indeterminacy of preferences (resp. of subjective utility).     

中国式现代化生态文明创造及时代超越性

西方资本主义生态现代化之路向是以全球性生态空间修复策略、时间修复策略掺杂生态霸权主义谋划而展现自身的生态叙事合法性的。它所证成的合理性,实质上不过是资本逻辑的生态隐性呈现及非正义剥夺。拒斥“资本丛林”成为新的生态文明创造的基本方向。从实践的生态本体论、认识论以及价值论出发,以构建“地球生命共同体”为鹄的,中国式现代化生态文明创造构筑了一个“人与自然是生命共同体”“人类命运共同体”“人与自然的生态伦理共同体”逐次展开的新路径。它摒弃人与自然对立关系的思维模式,建构了作为对象性的本质力量的生态主体性,塑造了以总体性环境正义为特征的伦理样态,实现了对资本主义生态空间生产的时代超越。中国式现代化生态文明创造的包容性与发展性为其能持续引领全球生态文明提供了可能。     

The 2003 Heat Wave in France: Dangerous Climate Change Here and Now

In an analysis of the French episode of heat wave in 2003, this article highlights how heat wave dangers result from the intricate association of natural and social factors. Unusually high temperatures, as well as socioeconomic vulnerability, along with social attenuation of hazards, in a general context where the anthropogenic contribution to climate change is becoming more plausible, led to an excess of 14,947 deaths in France, between August 4 and 18, 2003. The greatest increase in mortality was due to causes directly attributable to heat: dehydration, hyperthermia, heat stroke. In addition to age and gender, combinatorial factors included preexisting disease, medication, urban residence, isolation, poverty, and, probably, air pollution. Although diversely impacted or reported, many parts of Europe suffered human and other losses, such as farming and forestry through drought and fires. Summer 2003 was the hottest in Europe since 1500, very likely due in part to anthropogenic climate change. The French experience confirms research establishing that heat waves are a major mortal risk, number one among so-called natural hazards in postindustrial societies. Yet France had no policy in place, as if dangerous climate were restricted to a distant or uncertain future of climate change, or to preindustrial countries. We analyze the heat wave's profile as a strongly attenuated risk in the French context, as well as the causes and the effects of its sudden shift into amplification. Research and preparedness needs are highlighted.