The aim of the article is to provide a comprehensive survey of formal methods currently widely used to model the gradation of beliefs. Thus, it brings together in an insightful way several frameworks representing probabilistic, multi-valued and graded modalities’ approaches. They enable to express, in various manners, uncertainty of agents’ beliefs and, even more, the process of persuasion whic...

Although Advance Selling and Probabilistic Selling differ in both motivation and implementation, we argue that they share a common characteristic—both offer consumers a choice involving buyer uncertainty. We develop a formal model to examine the general economics of purchase options that involve buyer uncertainty, explore the differences in buyer uncertainty created via these two strategies, an...

We provide a formal model of entrepreneurship in human development. The framework is provided by the capabilities approach (CA). Hence we extend not only the conceptualisation of entrepreneurship in development, but the reach of the CA into entrepreneurship. From a CA view, entrepreneurship is not only a production factor, or a means to an end, as is often taken to be the case by economists, bu...

We describe a meta-method for formal method integration [Pai97]. The approach is applied to combining formal methods with other formal and semiformal methods. We discuss the theory behind formal method integration, present two example combinations, and use an integrated method in solving a small problem.

First, the anthropological and demographic literature on fertility in Africa shows that the desire for a family factors heavily in young women's contraceptive choices.2,3 Our own work in Kenya and Malawi provides robust evidence that sexually active young adults use contraception to plan their families.4,5 Furthermore, many young people avoid modern contraceptive methods because they fear it wi...