THE ECONOMICS OF HOMELAND SECURITY EXPENDITURES: FOUNDATIONAL EXPECTED COST‐EFFECTIVENESS APPROACHES

In: Contemporary economic policy: a journal of Western Economic Association International, Band 25, Heft 1, S. 14-26

Abstract

While most economists expect some marginal conditions to result from basic expected value models involving government expenditures and homeland security investments, such models are not readily found in the literature. The article presents six basic models that all incorporate uncertainty; they also capture various problems involving technological limits, behavioral interactions, false negatives and false positives, and decision making with uncertainty and irreversibility. Recent reviews of homeland security programs by the U.S. Government Accountability Office are used to illustrate the relevance of the models.(JEL H100)