PETRI NETS AS TOOLS FOR POLICY ANALYSIS: THE EXAMPLE OF SMOKING BANS IN PUBLIC PLACES

摘要

Petri nets were originally developed in order to describe concurrent processes in computers and other automata. This paper identifies the features of Petri nets, which are essential for doing semi-quantitative analyses of public policies. The toolkit resulting from this methodological investigation is subsequently used for an exemplary analysis of smoking-bans and -restrictions in public places. At the end, the article presents empirical evidence, which seems to corroborate some inferences deduced from the model.