Incertitude scientifique et décision publique : le recours au Principe de pré-caution

Abstract

In this paper, we formalize two criteria of decisions which try to convey two different interpretations of the Precautionary principle. The first criterion corresponds to the maximization of the minimum of the expected utility whereas the second criterion corresponds to the minimization of the maximum of the regret expectation. We apply those two criteria in an economic problem where uncertainty is assessed by a family of probabilities. We show that there is a distance of probabilities for which the choices induced by the two criteria are different. Especially, we show that in this case, the second criterion always induces the more cautious decision contrary to the first criterion, decisions are the same elsewhere.