Who Stopped Flying around September 11th?

This paper presents the first set of empirical results on the effects of the events of September 11th, 2001, on individual flying demand using data collected before and after these atrocities.September 11th; Demand for flying

Grade surprise and choice at 16

This paper argues that an important influence on boys’ decisions to stay on into post-compulsory education is the attainment of maths grades that differ from expected.Bivariate probit; post-compulsory education; choice under uncertainty

Gender Specific Peer Groups and Choice at 16

The UK government’s aim of achieving a 50% staying on rate in higher education at the age of 16 might not be achievable because it is demandconstrained: not all students want to stay on in education at 16. Peer groups are known to be stronger for boys than for girls and often influence choice at 16. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of gender-specific peer groups on students’ intentions and realisations to stay-on into post-compulsory education at the age of 16. The results suggest that boys’ intentions and realisations are influenced by their male peers. However, girls’ intentions are influenced by their whole peer group while their realisations are influenced by their female peer group. Policy targeted to increase participation rates should recognise these gender differences.Education economics, School choice.

Student Participation in Sporting Activities

Given that many universities spend large sums of money supplying sports facilities for student use, comparatively little is known about the factors that influence the quantity of student sporting participation. This paper presents evidence which suggests that the quantity of student sports participation is adversely affected by greater hours of work and increased by greater sports literacy and the decision to augment social capital. Effective investment in sports facilities by Universities would meet students’ demands and not simply increase the range of sports facilities available to students.Sport; Participation; Time; Social capital; Students

Australasian money demand stability: Application of structural break tests

Estimates of the demand for money provide important foundations for monetary policy setting but if the estimation technique does not explicitly account for structural changes then such estimates will be biased. This paper presents an investigation into the level and stability of money demand (M1) for Australia and New Zealand over the 1960-2009 period and demonstrates that both countries experienced regime shifts; Australia also experienced an intercept shift. Application of four time series methods provide consistent results with 1984 and 1998 break dates. CUSUM and CUSUMSQ stability tests reveal that M1 demand functions were unstable over the 1984 to 1998 period for both countries although tests for stability are not rejected thereafter.Money demand; Cointegration; Structural breaks; Australia; New Zealand

Concordant Convergence Empirics

We present a new model to test the convergence hypothesis based on the ideas of concordance and then employ the model to test empirically for GDP per capita convergence across 97 countries. Our results suggest the presence of switching, while there is more ‘strong divergence’ than ‘strong convergence’.Convergence; Concordance; Income per capita.

Australasian money demand stability:Application of structural break tests

Estimates of the demand for money provide important foundations for monetary policy setting but if the estimation technique does not explicitly account for structural changes then such estimates will be biased. This paper presents an investigation into the level and stability of money demand (M1) for Australia and New Zealand over the 1960-2009 period and demonstrates that both countries experienced regime shifts; Australia also experienced an intercept shift. Application of four time series methods provide consistent results with 1984 and 1998 break dates. CUSUM and CUSUMSQ stability tests reveal that M1 demand functions were unstable over the 1984 to 1998 period for both countries although tests for stability are not rejected thereafter.Money demand; Cointegration; Structural breaks; Australia; New Zealand

Students’ perceptions of economics:Identifying demand for further study

Most university departments aspire to increase their quantity of students. The objective of this empirical study is to ascertain whether it is possible to identify students who would demand more economics study. Using data on student perceptions of economics and the application of logistic regression, K-means clustering, ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD statistical techniques we reveal distinct clusters of students, including a small cluster of students who appear to be more open to further study.Students; Demand for economics

Winners and Losers: Spatial variations in labour productivity in England and Wales

This paper presents an investigation into the static and dynamic spatial pattern of aggregate labour productivity across England and Wales at the district and unit authority level. This analysis is complemented by plant-level regressions to identify the contribution of industrial sectors to each NUTS1 region’s average labour productivity. Using data for 1998 and 2005, our exploratory data analysis illustrates that there are stable spatial patterns in levels of labour productivity and that labour productivity change does not appear to be spatially dependent, at least not at this spatial scale. Furthermore the economic importance of different sectors to different regions evolves over time, which makes regional industrial policy formation problematic.Labour productivity; districts and local authorities; sectors; spatial autocorrelation

Microeconomic foundations of geographical variations in labour productivity

This paper initially presents an exploratory spatial data analysis which indicates the presence of small-scale geographical variations in levels and standard deviations of labour productivity across England and Wales in 2005. We identify the presence of spatial autocorrelation for both measures. This finding motivates a subsequent review and extension of theories which suggest the possible presence of small-scale geographical patterns of labour productivity.Labour productivity; standard deviation; districts and local authorities; geographical autocorrelation