The Monetary Value of Winter Sport Services in the European Alps

Considering the increasing stress of competition in winter sports, e.g., caused by the increasing popularity of sun holidays in the winter season or recently developed new ski areas, cable-car companies have to optimize their price-performance ratio with a modified marketing management approach. For most decisions regarding the marketing mix (e.g. the price calculation of new supply attributes), the knowledge about the monetary value of the different single attributes a consumer receives when purchasing a ski-lift ticket is indispensable. Since economics in general has a certain value for practical decision-taking in leisure management we follow other authors and transfer the economic concept of ‘hedonic prices’ to the field of empirical leisure research to derive the monetary value of some core service attributes in winter sports. The study is based on data of n=260 ski areas in five countries of the European Alps (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland). While the developed hedonic price models show rather high-variance explanatory power, most of the estimated attribute prices differ significantly between the countries studied. Possible implications for the price and product policies of cable-car companies are presented and discussed.Winter sports, hedonic approach, monetary value, ski, service, price

Does higher sport supply lead to higher sport demand? A city level analysis

This paper explores the decision to participate in sports activities and the subsequent frequency of participation using data from a big German city, Munich, representative sample of individuals in 2008. Individual and socio-economic variables characterizing the individuals were collected. A new type of variable, which has not been included in the existing econometric studies yet, is introduced: the availability of sport infrastructures, including their geographical localization and the type of infrastructure. If building sport infrastructures can be seen as an investment and as a consequence a cost for the city, sport infrastructures can also be considered as a factor influencing positively the sport demand. However, the localization of such an infrastructure can be seen as a time and income constraint for the sport participant if the distance from the home is too important. Traditional non linear econometric analysis, logit and poisson models, as well as two-level nonlinear hierarchical models are used to examine the empirical evidence provided by the data collected by survey including 11.715 persons. The results suggest that social and individual characteristics are of paramount importance in determining sports participation and sports frequency, as shown in the 2 recent econometric studies based on UK and US data (Downward, 2007 and Humpreys and Ruseski, 2007). In our study related to the city Munich, we can see that the impact of the variable age is non linear, that the gender is highly significant in explaining the differences of sport participation and the impact of the level of school attendance on sport practice are significantly explanatory. A very interesting result is the explanatory power of the variable ethnicity, or nationality of the person and we take a particular attention on it. The regression coefficients related to different nationalities differs among sport disciplines. These differences could be explained no only by sociological reasons, but also by economic reasons, among other things. The economic variables, taking alone, particularly the monthly income of the person interweaved, have a lower impact on both the decision to practice sport and the frequency of the sport activity. The most innovative result of our econometric study is to state, through an analysis of each kind of sport infrastructures, that the sport practice supply in an acceptable distance from the individual home has a significant and positive impact on both the decision of practicing a sport and on the frequency of this activity. These results, related to the city Munich, open an alternative way of considering the urban sport demand. Such a study could allow predicting the outcomes of political decisions in the domain of sport for all at the city level, the econometrical models using there being able to predict on how many percent the sport participation would increase if a new sport infrastructure would be built.Sports

Expenditure Elasticities of the Demand for Leisure Services

Although some research has already focused on the analysis of expenditure elasticities of leisure demand, some shortcomings with regard to the content and the underlying theoretical model as well as the applied methods exist. This paper aims at avoiding these problems to provide consistent derivatives of leisure service expenditure elasticities. Therefore, a regular demand system is derived from microeconomic duality theory. To implement leisure specific demand factors (i.e., demand- and supply-based sports and recreational opportunities as well as sports and recreational preferences) while still being consistent with neoclassical demand theory, the basic model is extended by applying the demographic translation framework. Data of the continuous household budget survey (n=7,724) from Germany is used for the estimation of the derived demand system. It is shown how sensitive the results are depending on the applied (censored) regression model: 16 out of 18 analyzed services are indicated as luxury goods based on the findings of the Tobit model type I but as necessities based on the findings of the Tobit model type II. Possible implications are presented and discussed.Expenditure elasticity, demand, services, Tobit, Almost Ideal Demand System

Sportpartizipation in Deutschland: ein demo-ökonomisches Modell

Demographische und ökonomische Veränderungen der Gesellschaft werfen Fragen nach deren Konsequenzen für den Sport auf. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags wird untersucht, in welcher Weise die Sportpartizipation in Deutschland von demogra-phischen und ökonomischen Parametern abhängt und wie sich die Sportpartizipation bei einer Änderung demographischer und ökonomischer Rahmenbedingungen wandelt. Das zugrunde liegende Modell fußt auf der ökonomischen Haushaltstheorie, die zu einem demo-ökonomischen Analysemodell erweitert worden ist. Auf regressionsanalytischer Basis wird gezeigt, dass negative Effekte auf die Sportpartizipation durch die demographischen Faktoren Alterung und Migration durch Wirtschaftswachstum und Bildungsinvestitionen ausgeglichen werden können.

Data Linking - Linking survey data with geospatial, social media, and sensor data (Version 1.0)

Survey data are still the most commonly used type of data in the quantitative social sciences. However, as not everything that is of interest to social scientists can be measured via surveys, and the self-report data they provide have certain limitations, such as recollection or social desirability bias, researchers have increasingly used other types of data that are not specifically created for research. These data are often called "found data" or "non-designed data" and encompass a variety of different data types. Naturally, these data have their own sets of limitations. One way of combining the unique strengths of survey data and these other data types and dealing with some of their respective limitations is to link them. This guideline first describes why linking survey data with other types of data can be useful for researchers. After that, it focuses on the linking of survey data with three types of data that are becoming increasingly popular in the social sciences: geospatial data, social media data, and sensor data. Following a discussion of the advantages and challenges associated with linking survey data with these types of data, the guideline concludes by comparing their similarities, presenting some general recommendations regarding linking surveys with other types of (found/non-designed) data, and providing an outlook on current developments in survey research with regard to data linking

Teaching and Learning at the Virtual Academy for Crafts Trade - Evaluation Findings of the Mercur-Project

The pilot project MERCUR investigated the potentials of E-Learning in the crafts sector in Germany. The focus of research and development was on the design of a virtual academy for the crafts sector and an internet-based learning environment. This article exemplifies the experiences of learners and teachers

Physical activity of adults aged 50years and older in Switzerland

Summary.: Objective: This study explores the prevalence of guideline-compliant physical activity (PA) behavior based on socio-demographic, health-related and environmental variables. Methods: Cross-sectional data of the Swiss Health Survey 2002 were used in a Swiss population segment aged 50+. Four categories of PA were created with respect to Swiss and US guidelines: "moderate sports/exercise”, "vigorous sports/exercise”, "habitual PA”, and "optimal PA” (i. e. combined variable used when both "vigorous sports/exercise” and "habitual PA” apply). Sedentary lifestyle was a fifth category. Results: In the total sample considered for analysis (N=8405) the prevalence of guideline-compliant PA was: 9.1% moderate sports/exercise; 18.2% vigorous sports/exercise; 45% habitual PA; 8.7% optimal PA. Almost 50% of the age groups 65-79 and 80+ were involved in habitual PA. Higher socio-economic status was associated with involvement in moderate sports/exercise, vigorous sports/exercise, or optimal PA. In contrast, lower socioeconomic status was associated with habitual PA. While living in an urban or rural environment had no differentiating effect on sports/exercise, living in rural areas was associated with a sedentary lifestyle and little involvement in habitual PA and/or optimal PA. Self-reported good health and/or health orientation were associated with vigorous sports/exercise, habitual PA and optimal PA, regardless of whether the person had chronic health problems or not. Conclusion: Habitual PA seems to have the greatest potential for increasing overall guideline-compliant activity levels. A behavioral/ cognitive and political/environmental approach to improving PA is suggeste

The Financial Impact of (Foreign) Private Investors on Team Investments and Profits in Professional Football: Empirical Evidence from the Premier League

US owners at Manchester United, Arsenal London, and Liverpool; Arab owners at Manchester City; Russian owners at Chelsea London – the top football clubs from England have been acquired by private (mostly foreign) majority investors. Some of these clubs have been claimed to distort national competition, and Manchester City had to pay €60m as a punishment for violating UEFA Financial Fair Play rules in 2014. Thus, this article addresses the controversial financial impact of (foreign) private majority investors in the overinvestment environment of European professional football. Applying property rights theory to an unbalanced panel from the first English division from 2005/06 to 2011/12, this paper tests theoretical predictions from the ‘sugar daddy’ literature and empirically shows that, first, private investors increase team investment and decrease profits. And, second, the positive influence on team investment can mainly be reduced to foreign investors. Implications for utility- and profit-maximizing team owners, managers, and regulators are derived

Sensitivity analysis of a climate vulnerability index - a case study from Indian watershed development programmes

Background: This paper presents a detailed analysis of a composite Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) to examine and compare climate change vulnerability and its dimensions adaptive capacity, sensitivity and exposure. Thereby, we are mainly interested on climate change vulnerability at community-level watershed development programmes and how the different implementing agencies could help to address the problems associated with climate change in future planning and implementation. Method: The primary data used for this study was obtained from household surveys (n=215) in three watershed communities of Kerala, India. We use bootstrap sampling and a leave-one-out sensitivity analysis to compare the climate vulnerability of the three examined watersheds in detail. By introducing the bootstrapping method and sensitivity analysis into the research field of climate vulnerability, the paper describes significant differences in CVI values and the influencing indicators to the overall vulnerability at the watershed community level. Results The results show that there are significant differences in the exposure and sensitivity dimensions of vulnerability even if the overall CVI shows less variability and no significant differences among the three watersheds. The sensitivity analysis emphasizes that Livelihood Strategies and SSocial Network are the most influencing major components of vulnerability. This suggests that implementing agencies should focus on these two major components in order to improve the watershed development programmes. Conclusion The bootstrapping approach is transferable to evaluate the degree of influence of indicators on a composite index like the CVI. Moreover, it allows us to evaluate the potential effectiveness of various other climate change programmes where the evaluation is commonly done by field surveys. This thereby helps to increase the credibility in the examination of the impacts of climate change at different scales in order to find key areas for better policy planning