A review of measures of competitive balance in the "analysis of competitive balance" literature

This paper presents a review of measures of the competitive balance of sports leagues proposed in the line of literature which Fort and Maxcy (2003, p. 155) call “ ... the analysis of competitive balance (ACB) literature itself”. They describe this as\ud the literature which “... focuses on what has happened to competitive balance over time or as a result of changes in the business practices of pro sports.” A number of boo ks and articles have provided surveys of these measures of competitive balance. This review consolidates that work and augments it by adding details to facilitate the appropriate application and interpretation of the measures. This paper also considers the applicability of the measures of competitive balance in the literature to the professional leagues of association football

Entering Upon Novelty: Policy and Funding Issues for a New Era in the Arts

The organizational structures and underlying assumptions necessary to thrive in this new development phase for the arts will be quite different from those that served us well -- or that we took for granted -- even in the recent past. Where before we were structured for growth, future success will mean being structured for sustainability; growth capacity as a measure of success will be replaced by "adaptive capacity."This basic change in business assumptions will better reflect the trajectory of contemporary life. Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman suggests we are now living in globalized environments that bypass interdependency and are full of "endemic uncertainty." Living self-determined lives that are independent of the social and cultural norms of the past, people are "looking for engagement, for experiences that they themselves can feel part of creating."We are becoming used to the shift from "proprietary" software to "open-source"; now our organizations have to undergo a similar shift, to accommodate the new "architectures of participation" that Clay Shirky writes about.What all this means is that the ability of an arts organization to adapt its programs, strategies, structures, and systems to address continuous external change and seize fleeting opportunities will become a leading indicator of success and a primary measure of organizational health. In this new era, successful organizations will more deeply recognize and engage with the creativity and artistic potential of the larger community, and the dominant organizational model will change to one that is porous, open, and responsive.This shift will require new forms of strategic thinking, organizational nimbleness, and a commitment to remaining transitory (not to efficiency, specialty, and technical rigidity). Wider definitions of success will center on helping foster "expressive lives" in our communities (a term introduced to arts policy by Bill Ivey), more than on developing a professional cultural community for its own sake. As Samuel Jones wrote recently, "We have moved from a model of provision to one of enabling. The role of the cultural professional has changed.

Sports policy analytics for professional sports leagues

The organisers of most professional sports leagues now employ one or more forms of policy intervention such as revenue sharing and salary capping schemes. The focus of the sports economic literature was initially directed towards the theoretical effects o f these policies on competitive balance, wage rates and owner profits in the context of Major US sports leagues. That work has since been broadened in the literature to include other types of policy intervention and other model assumptions such as ‘win ma ximising’ owners and ‘open’ labour markets that characterise other professional leagues such as for association football. This paper consolidates the analytical treatment in the sports economics literature of both product market and labour market policy i nterventions by league sports organisers to form a standardised set of techniques presented in a generally accessible format. This is intended to provide the reader with the method and approach for similar analysis of other combinations of assumptions and policy specification as appropriate to particular professional sports leagues. More recent policy intervention has included the regulation of financial performance of professional (association) football clubs. This paper adds to the literature by also pr ovid ing a framework for analysing the effect of this policy intervention on professional sports clubs

Is openness inflationary? Imperfect competition and monetary market power

Much empirical work has documented a negative correlation between different measures of globalization or openness and inflation levels across countries and across time. However, there is much less work exploring this relationship through structural international models based on explicit microeconomic foundations. This paper asks the question of how the degree of openness of an economy affects the equilibrium inflation level in a simple two-country OLG model with imperfect competition in which the monetary authority in each country chooses the money growth rate to maximize the welfare of its citizens. I find that a higher degree of openness in a country is associated with a higher equilibrium inflation rate. ; This result is driven by the fact that the monetary authority enjoys a degree of monopoly power in international markets as Foreign consumers have some degree of inelasticity in their demand for goods produced in the Home country. The decision of the monetary authority is then to balance the benefits of increased money growth that come from the open economy setting with the well-known consumption tax costs of inflation. In addition, I find that the level of imperfect competition among producers within a country is a perfect substitute for the international market power of the monetary authority in extracting the monopoly rents available in this international structure.Globalization ; Equilibrium (Economics)

Why did British Electricity Prices Fall after 1998?

In an attempt to reduce high electricity prices in England and Wales the government has reduced concentration among generators and introduced New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA). Econometric analysis on monthly data from April 1996 to September 2002 implies support for two conflicting hypotheses. On a static view, increases in competition and the capacity margin were chiefly responsible for the fall in prices. If generators had been tacitly colluding before NETA, however, the impending change in market rules might have changed their behaviour a few months before the abolition of the Pool. That view implies that NETA reduced prices

Economics of Change in Market Structure, Conduct, and Performance The Baking Industry 1947-1958

Baking is one of the largest industries in the United States. Its sales, which exceed $4 billion annually, rank it third among the food processing industries, and thirteenth among all manufacturing industries. Bakery products account for nearly$1 out of every $10 spent by American consumers for food. Almost half of the domestic consumption of wheat flour is in the form of bread, rolls, cake, pie, doughnuts, sweet goods, and other perishable bakery products. While this study encompasses the perishable bakery products industry as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, it focuses primarily on wholesale markets for white bread. Since World War II, important changes have occurred in the bread baking industry. A decline in the per capita demand for bread products coupled with changes in technology and costs has affected the relationships between baking companies, their market behavior, and the resulting level of efficiency and price performance. In an industrial economy, the farming, milling, baking, retailing, and consuming functions are integrally related. Changes in the organization and practices in one may induce changes in others. The baking industry occupies a strategic position in this process, and as a result, consumers, farmers, millers, and retailers, as well as bakers themselves, have a vital interest in the way the baking industry performs. Changes in market structure and firm behavior in the baking industry have been the subject of study and concern by several interested individuals and groups. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has followed with increased concern the widening of the market margin and the declining farmer share of consumer bread prices. The Senate Agricultural Committee has completed a study of average cost and returns of bakery operations.The Federal Trade Commission has followed the pricing practices of many baking companies with frequent cease and desist orders. I\u3e The Justice Department, through periodic prosecutions, has kept baking firms aware of the limitation imposed by the antitrust laws. The Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly has studied the impact of discriminatory pricing by large baking companies on small independent bakers.7 The industry has encouraged economic study of the historic development of baking and changes in market organization and practices.s Most recently, the F.T.C. studied buyer concentration and the integration of retail grocery organizations into baking and other food processing industries

The importance of parents and teachers as stakeholders in school-based healthy eating programs

Schools have a crucial role for promoting and establishing healthy behaviors early in the life-course. In recent years, a substantial effort and resources have been invested in attempts to change the 'food culture' in schools in westernized societies. Large school-based programs which promote healthy eating often utilize an ecological model for instigating behavior change amongst school children. An ecological model is a set of comprehensive intervention strategies that target a multitude of factors which influence the eating practices of children in the school setting. The cultural issues that necessitate these healthy eating programs mean that interventions are not without challenges to their application and effectiveness particularly as they rely on collaboration between stakeholders: teachers, parents, public health practitioners, policy makers and more. The stakeholder input and relations are key parts of planning, implementing and evaluating complex health promotion and education programs in schools. This commentary will outline the importance of considering both teachers and parents as influencing agents or 'enablers' in the process of creating change in this context. Parental perceptions and teachers’ insights are critical for underpinning intervention feasibility, acceptability and performance. Their perceptions and understandings can provide ground-level and highly applicable expertise and importantly motivate children in the school environment. The philosophical principles behind parent and teacher integration into formal program evaluation are discussed, providing a theoretical basis for program evaluation. Recommendations are made for policy makers, researchers and professional evaluation experts’ to consider and integrate these stakeholders in future programs

The economics of interchange fees and their regulation : an overview

Debit cards ; Credit cards