Inspection games in a mean field setting

In this paper, we present a new development of inspection games in a mean field setting. In our dynamic version of an inspection game, there is one inspector and a large number N interacting inspectees with a finite state space. By applying the mean field game methodology, we present a solution as an epsilon-equilibrium to this type of inspection games, where epsilon goes to 0 as N tends to infinity. In order to facilitate numerical analysis of this new type inspection game, we conduct an approximation analysis, that is we approximate the optimal Lipschitz continuous switching strategies by smooth switching strategies. We show that any approximating smooth switching strategy is also an epsilon-equilibrium solution to the inspection game with a large and finite number N of inspectees with epsilon being of order 1/N

Inspection and crime prevention : an evolutionary perspective

In this paper, we analyse inspection games with an evolutionary perspective. In our evolutionary inspection game with a large population, each individual is not a rational payoff maximiser, but periodically updates his strategy if he perceives that other individuals' strategies are more successful than his own, namely strategies are subject to the evolutionary pressure. We develop this game into a few directions. Firstly, social norms are incorporated into the game and we analyse how social norms may influence individuals' propensity to engage in criminal behaviour. Secondly, a forward-looking inspector is considered, namely, the inspector chooses the level of law enforcement whilst taking into account the effect that this choice will have on future crime rates. Finally, the game is extended to the one with continuous strategy spaces

Game theoretic models of networks security

Decision making in the context of crime execution and crime prevention can be successfully investigated with the implementation of game-theoretic tools. Evolutionary and mean-field game theory allow for the consideration of a large number of interacting players organized in social and behavioural structures, which typically characterize this context. Alternatively, `traditional' game-theoretic approaches can be applied for studying the security of an arbitrary network on a two player non-cooperative game. Theoretically underpinned by these instruments, in this thesis we formulate and analyse game-theoretic models of inspection, corruption, counter- terrorism, patrolling, and similarly interpreted paradigms. Our analysis suggests optimal strategies for the involved players, and illustrates the long term behaviour of the introduced systems. Our contribution is towards the explicit formulation and the thorough analysis of real life scenaria involving the security in network structures

Efficient Committed Budget for Implementing Target Audit Probability for Many Inspectees

Strategic models of auditor-inspectee interaction have neglected implementation details in multiple-inspectee settings. With multiple inspectees, the target audit probability derived from the standard analysis can be implemented with sampling plans differing in the budgets committed to support them. Overly committed audit budgets tie up unneeded resources that could have been allocated for better uses. This paper studies the minimum committed budget required to implement a target audit probability when (i) the audit sample can be contingent on “red flags” due to signals of inspectees’ private information (e.g., from self-reporting) and (ii) the number of inspectees is large. It proposes an audit rule called bounded simple random sampling (SRS), which is shown to require no more committed budget to support than two other rules naturally generalized from the one-to-one analysis. When the number of inspectees is large enough, bounded SRS is nearly as good as any efficient audit rule, which demands the lowest committed budget necessary to implement the target audit probability. The results offer insights on how audit sampling plans may be formulated to reduce inefficiency and what budget usage ratios should be expected accordingly.audit sampling plan; audit budget; tax audit; tax compliance; tax evasion; inspection game; appropriation and rescission

Does Disclosure of Performance Information Influence Street-level Bureaucrats' Enforcement Style?

Governments use different regulatory instruments to ensure that businesses owners or "inspectees" comply with rules and regulations. One tool that is increasingly applied is disclosing inspectees' performance information to other stakeholders. Disclosing performance information has consequences for street-level bureaucrats because it increases the visibility of their day-to-day work. Using a survey (n =507) among Dutch inspectors of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, this article shows that the disclosure of performance information has an impact on enforcement style at the street level. Findings show that perceived disclosed performance information positively enhances all three dimensions of street-level bureaucrats' enforcement style (legal, facilitation, and accommodation). This effect is strongest for facilitation and accommodation and weakest for the legal style. Perceived resistance by inspectees partly explains this effect. Contrary to expectations, more perceived disclosure does not result in more but in less perceived resistance of inspectees by street-level bureaucrats

On the Outside, Looking in : Understanding Transparency at the Frontline

This doctoral dissertation examines the effects of transparency on the daily work of street-level bureaucrats and their interactions with citizens. By studying food and product safety inspectors, this dissertation shows that transparency helps street-level bureaucrats do their job. By studying citizens’ perceptions of multiple enforcing street-level bureaucrats (e.g. parking wardens), this dissertation reveals that citizens are biased about the street-level bureaucrats they meet, but this does not mean they will make what street-level bureaucrats do transparent to others

Blaming the bureaucrat: does perceived blame risk influence inspectors’ enforcement style?

Is there a relation between street-level bureaucrats’ enforcement style and their perception of the risk of getting blamed? This article answers this question on the basis of a survey (n = 507) among inspectors of the Netherlands Food and Product Safety Authority. We included perceived media attention on their work as a factor that might influence street-level bureaucrats’ perception of blame risk and their enforcement style. Three dimensions of enforcement style were distinguished from earlier research: legal, facilitative and accommodative. We found that when inspectors perceive more blame risk, they employ a slightly less legal style and, instead, employ a more accommodative style. Thus, they act a little less formally and less coercively (i.e. legal) and take greater account of their peers’ opinions (i.e. accommodative). However, perceived media attention did not have a significant influence on enforcement style. Points for practitioners: 1. When inspectors perceive more blame risk, they tend to pay more attention to the opinion of peers (other inspectors, supervisors, etc.). 2. Blame risk does not lead to the use of a more formal inspection style. 3. Media attention does not play an important role in enhancing the blame risk perception of inspectors. 4. This media and blame risk is less important than often found in the case of politicians. This may be connected to the fact that the work of inspectors as street-level bureaucrats is less visible to the wider public (and the media)

Inspection games for selfish network environments

Current distributed information system consider only typical fault-tolerance techniques for re-liability issues. Selfish peers, which deviate from the collaborative protocol to increase personal benefit, may also harmfully affect the goals of networked architectures. Securing the collaborative protocol would be an option, however, this may not be always possible or wanted. Then, a post-hoc assessment, deployed by the system designer, could monitor the correct behaviour of the participants without affecting the actual system\u2019s functioning. Due to limited resources, a complete monitoring is not possible: typically monitoring is done by sampling by sampling so that misbehaviour in some case can go undetected. At the same time, a selfish peer\u2019s decision to violate also depends also on the monitoring rate of the inspecting parties. This forms an interdependent interaction landscape, which corresponds to a class of games known as Inspection Games. In this paper, we discuss the practicability of Inspection Games for networked architectures for system analysis and design. To this end, develop generalized Inspection Game versions up to m inspectors and n inspectees, starting from a simple two-player game; we further provide solutions (i.e. Nash equilibria) for all games. Afterwards, these games and solutions are adapted towards an application to networked architectures. This is done by extending them to the possibility of false negatives (the performed inspection on a player\u2019s behaviour does not detect a deviation from the protocol which has actually occurred, due to the intrinsic failability of the inspection technique)