The demand of computer systems that integrate heterogeneous and autonomous entities and institutions is increasing. These entities and institutions usually coexist in a complex social and legal framework that can evolve to address the different and often conflicting objectives of the many stakeholders involved. In this paper, we present ROMAS, an agent-oriented methodology that guides developer...

The Deterrent Effects of Prison: Evidence from a Natural Experiment* In this paper we test for the theory of deterrence. We exploit the natural experiment provided by the Collective Clemency Bill passed by the Italian Parliament in July 2006. As a consequence of the provisions of the bill, expected punishment to former inmates recommitting a crime can be considered as good as randomly assigned....

In the context of the ever-increasing incarcerated population in the U.S. and our “obesity epidemic,” recent work has investigated whether incarcerated individuals are at higher risk for obesity and related diseases. We build on this scholarship by interviewing incarcerated men and women, as well as correctional facility staff to parse the barriers and facilitators to maintaining a healthy weig...

This survey paper has three themes; a microeconomic analysis of institutions, an institutional analysis of microeconomics, and a discussion on the scope for an “institutional microeconomics” that takes insights from psychology and older institutional theory into account. Institutions are defined as the long-run rules of the economy that have the character of public goods and whose main function...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The building of a market economy in the former communist countries requires the creation of markets, of market-oriented enterprises, and of the wide range of institutions and business practices needed to support them. Some aspects of a market economy can and have been created quickly in these transition economies, in particular through market liberalisation and privatisation. ...

In this paper we propose an agent oriented framework for producing complex information systems using the electronic institutions paradigm. We define an intelligent organization environment that enables the use of available information technologies resources with MAS technology. Using electronic institutions we control the interactions of the intervening agents and the commitments generated by t...

Empirically oriented scholars often struggle with how to measure preferences across time and institutional contexts. This article characterizes these difficulties and provides a measurement approach that incorporates information that bridges time and institutions in a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach to ideal point measurement. The resulting preference estimates for presidents, senato...

This essay examines the expansion and diversification of the European university system in the post-war period. The impact of an enormous dimensional growth and of the rise in society's expectations for economic returns are analyzed. We develop a multivariate cluster analysis to group the data on the total European university population according to dimension and scientific research quality mea...

The purpose of this article is to describe a model of education about hepatitis C virus prevention tested in a county correctional facility. The Teach One Method and Relational Communication models inform this work. Using a one-group pretest-posttest prospective design our aims were to (1) convey education about prevention, protection, and safety; (2) provide this information through relationsh...

INTRODUCTION Penitentiary Nursing has experienced during the last decades a deep transformation similar to that experienced by the rest of the Nursing. However, there is a great distance from the protective legislation. OBJECTIVE To analyze the main legal documents which regulate the functions of Penitentiary Nursing and to compare it with the health care reality of nurses in Spanish prisons....