International trade and biological invasions: A queuing theoretic analysis of the prevention problem

We propose and develop a new framework for studying the problem of preventing biological invasions caused by ships transporting internationally traded goods between countries and continents. Specifically, we apply the methods of queuing theory to analyze the problem of preventing a biological invasion from a long run perspective. First, we characterize two simple regulatory regimes as two different kinds of queues. Second, we show how to pose a publically owned port manager’s decision problem as an optimization problem using queuing theoretic techniques. Third, we compare and contrast the optimality conditions emanating from our analysis of the M/M/I/U and the M/M/I/I inspection regimes. We conclude by discussing possible extensions to our basic models.