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ON THE PROBLEM OF PREVENTION
Author(s) -
BENOÎT JEANPIERRE,
DUBRA JUAN
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.658
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1468-2354
pISSN - 0020-6598
DOI - 10.1111/iere.12017
Subject(s) - risk analysis (engineering) , offset (computer science) , actuarial science , accident (philosophy) , business , computer science , philosophy , epistemology , programming language
Disasters are often precipitated by insufficient preventive care. We argue that there is a problem of prevention in that this lack of care often stems from agents’ rational calculations. Positive experiences lead agents to underestimate the risks of disasters; technological improvements and redundancies designed for safety induce agents to reduce their care. Although lower care increases the chances of an accident, the number of redundancies can be adjusted to offset this. However, the accident probability remains constant even as ostensible improvements in safety are made. Checklists can be used to decrease the number of accidents.