Re: Economics of noncompliance with federal laws - a paper

[netcomsv!netcom.com!dani@decwrl.dec.com (Dani Zweig)]

srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian):
>  Assuming that the Ada Mandate in its literal sense (ie. ALL DoD
>software has to be done in Ada, MIS, R&D, Embedded) is a rational optimal
>economic policy for the DoD to follow, then each violation of the Mandate
>for any project should end up costing more than if Ada had been used. 

No, lots of alternatives.  It could be that it's cheaper for DoD as a
whole to require suboptimal uses of Ada than to set up a good exceptions
mechanism.  It could be that the policy is globally optimal -- benefiting
the Department as a whole -- without being the optimal strategy for each
individual project.  It could be the optimal policy in the agency sense
that any weaker official policy would yield inadequate compliance.

This isn't to say that the Mandate is or isn't a rational optimal
economic policy -- just that the conclusion doesn't follow from
the premise.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

   The inability of snakes to count is actually a refusal, on their part,
    to appreciate the Cardinal Number system. -- "Actual Facts"