An economic model of gun control

Guns stolen from law-abiding households provide the principal source of guns for criminals. The lethality of crime instruments increases with the availability of guns, so the gun market is subject to externalities that generate excessive ownership and inadequate spending on protective measures to deter gun theft. One motive for gun ownership is self defense, and the gun market is subject to coordination failure: the more guns purchased lawfully, the more will be stolen by criminals, so the greater the incentive for lawful . consumers to purchase guns for self defense. As a result, there may be multiple equilibria in the gun market and more than one equilibrium crime rate. We show that a simple refundable deposit for guns will internalize the externalities in the gun market and may cause large downward jumps in gun ownership, the lethality of crime instruments, and the social costs of crime.

Global stabilizing feedback law for a problem of biological control of mosquito-borne diseases

The control of the spread of dengue fever by introduction of the intracellular parasitic bacterium Wolbachia in populations of the vector Aedes aegypti, is presently one of the most promising tools for eliminating dengue, in the absence of an efficient vaccine. The success of this operation requires locally careful planning to determine the adequate number of mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia parasite that need to be introduced into the natural population. The latter are expected to eventually replace the Wolbachia-free population and guarantee permanent protection against the transmission of dengue to human. In this paper, we propose and analyze a model describing the fundamental aspects of the competition between mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia and mosquitoes free of the parasite. We then introduce a simple feedback control law to synthesize an introduction protocol, and prove that the population is guaranteed to converge to a stable equilibrium where the totality of mosquitoes carry Wolbachia. The techniques are based on the theory of monotone control systems, as developed after Angeli and Sontag. Due to bistability, the considered input-output system has multivalued static characteristics, but the existing results are unable to prove almost-global stabilization, and ad hoc analysis has to be conducted.

Um estudo exploratório sobre sistemas de controle gerencial em empresas hoteleiras do Brasil

Nesta pesquisa, o que se pretendeu foi conhecer o atual estágio dos sistemas de controle gerencial utilizados em cinco hotéis localizados no Estado do Espírito Santo, levando-se em conta as peculiaridades do ramo e suas características com relação à adaptação, se necessário, dos diversos conceitos já aplicados em outros tipos de atividades, notadamente no ramo de serviços. Para tanto, procedeu-se a uma revisão de literatura e dos fundamentos teóricos sobre controle gerencial, principalmente aqueles voltados para a ciência comportamental, que serviram de suporte para estabelecer o plano de referência utilizado nesta pesquisa. Por tratar-se de trabalho descritivo, com riqueza de detalhes, foi adotada a metodologia do estudo de caso por ser a mais aconselhável neste tipo de trabalho. Entrevistas, utilizando questionários que continham em sua maior parte perguntas abertas, possibilitaram descrever o processo de controle gerencial existente nos hotéis pesquisados. Os resultados obtidos permitiram análises sobre a natureza deles e o estudo dos sistemas de controle gerencial dos hotéis estudados. Finalmente, uma comparaçao entre os resultados obtidos no trabalho de campo e os fundamentos teóricos levantados na revisão da literatura possibilitaram se chegasse a algumas conclusões importantes, além de permitirem formular algumas recomendações e sugestões para futuras pesquisas.

Turnaround de empresas com problemas de compliance - o caso Siemens

It is very relevant, for academic or for society purposes as a whole the subject "corruption", a recurring problem that plagues companies and Governments in various parts of the world. Many recent cases draw attention to this topic, but one in particular, the case of corruption of the company Siemens AG, that resulted in the payment of the largest fines in the history on your model, based on the terms of the FCPA since it became law in 1977. This event caters specifically to the objective of this work which is to make an analysis based on agency theory and the codes of good practices of corporate governance on how large companies revising their corporate management systems and practices aiming at the recovery of its institutional image after significant impact on the company, such as the corruption scandal in which Siemens was involved. For this study, we opted for qualitative research as a methodological path contemplating the single case study. In the process of data collection were used data obtained through documentary research about the corruption scandal on public collection available in the internet. Open conversations were made with 3 compliance Department officials of Siemens for the purposes of understanding the case with. At the end of this work, it was observed in the Siemens turnaround process a correlation between what was proposed by the Agency Theory about internal control Systems based on what was accomplished by the company when promoted an extensive restructuring of the Department of compliance and corporate governance system, the improvement of internal controls, as well as the creation of detection tools , control, analysis and prevention of fraud, which were used to minimize the effects generated by the conflict of interest covered by the theory of Agency. KEY WORDS: Corporate Governance; Compliance; Corruption; Turnaround, Agency Theory