A safety case is a well-reasoned argument, supported by evidence that a system is acceptably safe to operate in a particular context. For many, evolving a safety case in step with the design has proved to be an effective means of identifying and addressing safety concerns during a system’s lifecycle. However, ultimately safety cases address only one system attribute safety. Increasingly, the id...

The idea that trade-offs between offspring quantity and quality shape reproductive behaviour has long been central to economic perspectives on fertility. It also has a parallel and richer theoretical foundation in evolutionary ecology. We review the application of the quantity-quality trade-off concept to human reproduction, emphasizing distinctions between clutch size and lifetime fertility, a...

Since the advent of the discounted utility (DU) model, economists have thought about intertemporal choice in very specific terms. DU assumes that people make explicit trade-offs between costs and benefits occurring at different points in time. While this explicit trade-off perspective is simple and tractable, and has stimulated productive research, it does not provide a very realistic represent...