This position paper summarizes the contributions resulting from the short term scientific mission (STSM) of the first author, from University Rey Juan Carlos, to the Kings College London. During this scientific mission, we have studied the impact of norms on the sequential decision making of rational agents, and how they can be modelled and quantitatively assessed. For this purpose, we put forw...

Sanctions were imposed on the people of Iraq in 1990. Iraqi people are still suffering, especially children. Infant mortality (IM) has increased more than five times. Previously it had decreased from 139 in 1960 to 20 in 1989, which was comparable to developed countries. In 1992 it went up to 111. In 1999, a decade later, IM was still high at 104. The Gulf War and trade sanctions caused a three...

However, a solvent borrower may still be unwilling to repay if the benefit of defaulting is greater than the perceived cost of sanctions associated with default. The trouble for a lender is that the perceived cost of these sanctions does not just depend on the lender=s willingness to inflict them, but on the whole set of institutional arrangements that affect the credit market. This includes th...

Humans are much more cooperative than other vertebrates. In other species, cooperation is mainly limited to close relatives, there is little division of labor, no trade, and no large scale conflict, the sick and disabled must fend for themselves, and the strong take from the weak without fear of sanctions by third parties. In contrast, division of labor, trade, and large scale conflict are prom...

In The Netherlands, the average exit rate out of welfare is dramatically low. Most welfare recipients have to comply with guidelines on job search e ort that are imposed by the welfare agency. If they do not, then a sanction in the form of a temporarily bene t reduction can be imposed. This paper investigates the e ect of such sanctions on the transition from welfare to work using a unique set ...