The economics of organized crime and optimal law enforcement

This paper extends the optimal law enforcement literature to organized crime.We model the criminal organization as a vertical structure where the principal extracts some rents from the agents through extortion. Depending on the principal's information set, threats may or may not be credible. As long as threats are credible, the principal is able to fully extract rents.In that case, the results obtained by applying standard theory of optimal law enforcement are robust: we argue for a tougher policy. However, when threats are not credible, the principal is not able to fully extract rents and there is violence. Moreover, we show that it is not necessarily true that a tougher law enforcement policy should be chosen when in presence of organized crime.

Optimal law enforcement and criminal organization

In this paper, we take an organizational view of organized crime. In particular, we study the organizational consequences of product illegality attending at the following characteristics: (i) contracts are not enforceable in court, (ii) all participants are subject to the risk of being punished, (iii) employees present a major threat to the entrepreneur having the most detailed knowledge concerning participation, (iv) separation between ownership and management is difficult because record-keeping and auditing augments criminal evidence.

Sweet diversity: Colonial goods and the rise of European living standards after 1492

When did overseas trade start to matter for living standards? Traditional real-wage indices suggest that living standards in Europe stagnated before 1800. In this paper, we argue thatwelfare rose substantially, but surreptitiously, because of an influx of new goods as a result ofoverseas trade. Colonial luxuries such as tea, coffee, and sugar transformed European diets afterthe discovery of America and the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope. These goods became household items in many countries by the end of the 18th century. We use three different methodsto calculate welfare gains based on price data and the rate of adoption of these new colonialgoods. Our results suggest that by 1800, the average Englishman would have been willing to forego 10% or more of his income in order to maintain access to sugar and tea alone. These findings are robust to a wide range of alternative assumptions, data series, and valuation methods.

Dynamic optimal law enforcement with learning

We incorporate the process of enforcement learning by assuming that the agency's current marginal cost is a decreasing function of its past experience of detecting and convicting. The agency accumulates data and information (on criminals, on opportunities of crime) enhancing the ability to apprehend in the future at a lower marginal cost.We focus on the impact of enforcement learning on optimal stationary compliance rules. In particular, we show that the optimal stationary fine could be less-than-maximal and the optimal stationary probability of detection could be higher-than-otherwise.

Optimal law enforcement under asymmetric information

In this paper, we focus on the problem created by asymmetric informationabout the enforcer's (agent's) costs associated to enforcement expenditure. This adverse selection problem affects optimal law enforcement because a low cost enforcer may conceal its information by imitating a high cost enforcer, and must then be given a compensation to be induced to reveal its true costs. The government faces a trade-off between minimizing the enforcer's compensation and maximizing the net surplus of harmful acts. As a consequence, the probability of apprehension and punishment is usually reduced leading to more offenses being committed. We show that asymmetry of information does not affect law enforcement as long as raising public funds is costless. The consideration of costly raising of public funds permits to establish the positive correlation between asymmetry of information between government and enforcers andthe crime rate.

The second law of thermodynamics and the global climate system : A review of the maximum entropy production principle

The long-term mean properties of the global climate system and those of turbulent fluid systems are reviewed from a thermodynamic viewpoint. Two general expressions are derived for a rate of entropy production due to thermal and viscous dissipation (turbulent dissipation) in a fluid system. It is shown with these expressions that maximum entropy production in the Earth s climate system suggested by Paltridge, as well as maximum transport properties of heat or momentum in a turbulent system suggested by Malkus and Busse, correspond to a state in which the rate of entropy production due to the turbulent dissipation is at a maximum. Entropy production due to absorption of solar radiation in the climate system is found to be irrelevant to the maximized properties associated with turbulence. The hypothesis of maximum entropy production also seems to be applicable to the planetary atmospheres of Mars and Titan and perhaps to mantle convection. Lorenz s conjecture on maximum generation of available potential energy is shown to be akin to this hypothesis with a few minor approximations. A possible mechanism by which turbulent fluid systems adjust themselves to the states of maximum entropy production is presented as a selffeedback mechanism for the generation of available potential energy. These results tend to support the hypothesis of maximum entropy production that underlies a wide variety of nonlinear fluid systems, including our planet as well as other planets and stars

Thegioastrea multisepta (SISMONDA). Primer coralario colonial del Mioceno marino de Montjuich (Barcelona)

Se cita por primera vez el hallazgo de un coral colonia en Montjuich, Thegioastrea multisepta (SISMONDA) y se estudian las posibles causas de la rareza de este tipo de organismos en este yacimiento

Integrated random processes exhibiting long tails, finite moments, and power-law spectra

A dynamical model based on a continuous addition of colored shot noises is presented. The resulting process is colored and non-Gaussian. A general expression for the characteristic function of the process is obtained, which, after a scaling assumption, takes on a form that is the basis of the results derived in the rest of the paper. One of these is an expansion for the cumulants, which are all finite, subject to mild conditions on the functions defining the process. This is in contrast with the Lévy distribution¿which can be obtained from our model in certain limits¿which has no finite moments. The evaluation of the spectral density and the form of the probability density function in the tails of the distribution shows that the model exhibits a power-law spectrum and long tails in a natural way. A careful analysis of the characteristic function shows that it may be separated into a part representing a Lévy process together with another part representing the deviation of our model from the Lévy process. This

Comerç colonial, comensalitat i canvi social a la protohistòria de Catalunya

L'anàlisi del festeig com activitat social en les societats prehistòriques i protohistòriques, així com el seu paper en les relacions de poder, ha estat un dels temes recurrents en la literatura arqueològica generada en els darrers vint anys i referent a zones i períodes extremadament diversos. A la Mediterrània occidental i l"Europa central han estat particularment influents els treballs de M. Dietler, autor que, a partir d"un important volum de documentació etnogràfica, va proposar una tipologia de banquets en contextos socials de diferents naturaleses que és susceptible d"explicar aspectes rellevants de la documentació arqueològica coneguda de la Protohistòria a la costa mediterrània de la Península Ibèrica i la Gàl·lia entre altres, el volum i naturalesa canviants dels materials d"importació , tal com s"ha mostrat en diversos treballs més o menys recents (Dietler, 1990, 1996, 1999). Per als autors d"aquest treball, les idees elaborades per Dietler continuen essent plenament vàlides i conserven tot el seu potencial heurístic i explicatiu, per la qual cosa val la pena recordar-les breument.

La cartografía colonial española durante la Segunda República (1931-1936)

La Segunda República dedicó cuantiosos recursos, económicos y humanos, a la cartografía de las posesiones coloniales. Los sucesivos gobiernos republicanos mantuvieron una fuerte continuidad, organizativa y funcional, en el ámbito de la cartografía colonial, sin que se detecte ningún cambio significativo respecto a los planes trazados en etapas anteriores. La actividad cartográfica continuó centrada en el territorio de Marruecos, y fue protagonizada por una unidad dependiente del Ministerio de la Guerra, la Comisión Geográfica de Marruecos y Límites. En este trabajo, que se apoya en fuentes primarias, se ofrece una descripción del marco institucional de la cartografía colonial durante el período republicano, se identifica a sus artífices, y se da cuenta de los levantamientos cartográficos realizados.

Fray Toribio de Motolinía y la política colonial española: los Tributos y las leyes nuevas

La empresa providencial de la conquista y el recuerdo al buen caballeroy venturoso capitán, Hernando Cortés, conforman temáticamente la epístola proemial de la Historia de los indios de la Nueva España, de fray Toribio de Paredes, así como la historia de los pueblos precolombinos mexicas. Motolinía seguidamente pasará a arremeter contra los tributos que pesan sobre los indios. De esta manera, ya en el tratado primero, hará mención de las plagas que asolaron a las poblaciones amerindias tras la llegada de los españoles. A las tres primeras, la peste y el sarampión, las muertes ocasionadas por las guerras, y el hambre, llega la cuarta, esto es, la de los estancieros y negros que los conquistadores pusieron para cobrar los tributos. Así explica nuestro cronista el poder abusivo de tales hombres: «En los años primeros eran tan absolutos estos calpixques que en maltratar a los indios y en cargarlos y enviarlos lejos de su tierra y darles otros muchos trabajos, que muchos indios murieron por su causa y a sus manos, que es lo peor»...

Accessing Legal Information in Catalonia. Open Acces to Legislation and Case Law

The article outlines free online legal resources to conduct research on Catalan and Spanish legislation and case-law. Most of these resources are primary sources made public by government bodies. The list shows how the Spanish and Catalan governments, in their attempt to promote equal access to legislation and case-law, cover the different jurisdictions. The text also mentions some resources to conduct historical legal research about legislation and case law, and some free legal private websites.

The law of impersonal transactions

Most economic interactions happen in a context of sequential exchangein which innocent third parties suffer information asymmetry with respect toprevious "originative" contracts. The law reduces transaction costs byprotecting these third parties but preserves some element of consent byproperty rightholders to avoid damaging property enforcement?e.g., it isthey, as principals, who authorize agents in originative contracts. Judicialverifiability of these originative contracts is obtained either as an automaticbyproduct of transactions or, when these would have remained private, byrequiring them to be made public. Protecting third parties produces a legalcommodity which is easy to trade impersonally, improving the allocationand specialization of resources. Historical delay in generalizing this legalcommoditization paradigm is attributed to path dependency?the law firstdeveloped for personal trade?and an unbalance in vested interests, asluddite legal professionals face weak public bureaucracies.

Natural Products from Antarctic Colonial Ascidians of the Genera Aplidium and Synoicum: Variability and Defensive Role

Ascidians have developed multiple defensive strategies mostly related to physical, nutritional or chemical properties of the tunic. One of such is chemical defense based on secondary metabolites. We analyzed a series of colonial Antarctic ascidians from deep-water collections belonging to the genera Aplidium and Synoicum to evaluate the incidence of organic deterrents and their variability. The ether fractions from 15 samples including specimens of the species A. falklandicum, A. fuegiense, A. meridianum, A. millari and S. adareanum were subjected to feeding assays towards two relevant sympatric predators: the starfish Odontaster validus, and the amphipod Cheirimedon femoratus. All samples revealed repellency. Nonetheless, some colonies concentrated defensive chemicals in internal body-regions rather than in the tunic. Four ascidian-derived meroterpenoids, rossinones B and the three derivatives 2,3-epoxy-rossinone B, 3-epi-rossinone B, 5,6-epoxy-rossinone B, and the indole alkaloids meridianins AG, along with other minoritary meridianin compounds were isolated from several samples. Some purified metabolites were tested in feeding assays exhibiting potent unpalatabilities, thus revealing their role in predation avoidance. Ascidian extracts and purified compound-fractions were further assessed in antibacterial tests against a marine Antarctic bacterium. Only the meridianins showed inhibition activity, demonstrating a multifunctional defensive role. According to their occurrence in nature and within our colonial specimens, the possible origin of both types of metabolites is discussed.