Franchise Values in North American Professional Sports Leagues: Evidence from a Repeat Sales Method

The paper develops a quality adjusted professional sports franchise price index for North America based on a repeat sale method. This index reflects trends in the general price of sports franchises holding local market, facility, and team characteristics constant. The price index exhibits considerable volatility but no upward trend over time, unlike previous quality adjusted price indexes based on hedonic models in the literature. The lack of an upward trend in this quality adjusted price index indicates that specific franchise characteristics drives observed increases in prices over the past forty years.repeat sales method, sports franchise, quality adjusted price index

Consumer Behaviour in Lotto Markets: The Double Hurdle Approach and Zeros in Gambling Survey Data

Governments world-wide increasingly rely on gambling revenues, increasing the importance of understanding who gambles and why. Previous literature used Tobit and Heckman models to statistically analyze participation in gambling. These models make strong assumptions about the nature of gambling participation. We examine the double hurdle model as an alternative to other statistical approaches to modeling gambling participation and spending. Our results, based on data from a 2002 survey of gambling prevalence in Alberta, clearly prefer the double hurdle mode, which yields different results than the commonly used Tobit model.gambling; censored regression; double hurdle model

Over the Hurdles: Barriers to Social Media Use in Extension Offices

The research reported here explored the perceived barriers to social media use by Extension educators. Using a sequential mixed method approach, the research was composed of two parts. The qualitative study used interview data (n=27) from Wisconsin and New York Extension educators. The quantitative study gathered data from surveying Extension offices in New York State (n=42). We argue that key barriers to adoption of social media as an outreach platform include perceptions around time and control. Ultimately, we recommend that Extension educators receive focused, hands-on training to more efficiently and effectively use social media for education and outreach efforts

Community Internet of Things as Mobile Infrastructure: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities

From smart devices to homes to cities, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have become embedded within everyday objects on a global scale. We understand IoT technologies as a form of infrastructure that bridges the gaps between offline spaces and online networks as they track, transmit, and construct digital data from and of the physical world. We examine the social construction of IoT network technologies through their technological design and corporate discourses. In this article, we explore the methodological challenges and opportunities of studying IoT as an emerging network technology. We draw on a case study of a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN), a cost-effective radio frequency network that is designed to connect sensors across long distances. Reflecting on our semi-structured interviews with LPWAN users and advocates, participant observation at conferences about LPWAN, as well as a community-based LPWAN project, we examine the intersections of methods and practices as related to space, data, and infrastructures. We identify three key methodological obstacles involved in studying the social construction of networked technologies that straddle physical and digital environments. These include (a) transcending the invisibility and abstraction of network infrastructures, (b) managing practical and conceptual boundaries to sample key cases and participants, and (c) negotiating competing technospatial imaginaries between participants and researchers. Through our reflection, we demonstrate that these challenges also serve as generative methodological opportunities, extending existing tools to study the ways data connects online and offline spaces

Agri-food trade in GTAP-HET: Returns to scale in agriculture, and the Melitz model

Agricultural protection is almost always a highly sensitive issue in bi- and multi-lateral trade negotiations. The reasons for this are usually political, but it always means there is a high demand among policy makers for analytical tools which can assess the often complex impacts of liberalisation on farm viability, land use change, and consumer food prices. Since their inception, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models have made a rich contribution to this analysis. However, when standard assumptions of constant returns to scale and perfect competition are used, this can limit the ability of such models to answer the questions being asked by policy makers. Put simply, these questions often amount to “what are the opportunities, and what are the threats?” If returns to scale are not constant, or if other sources of productivity variation are present in a domestic farming system, the same liberalising policy may represent an opportunity to one farmer, and a threat to another, even if the two are producing the same commodity in the same country. Combining the macroeconomic width and rigour of a CGE model with the heterogeneity of domestic farm systems represents an exciting frontier in agri-food trade policy analysis. This paper will present the current evidence on returns to scale in agricultural sectors in selected countries – drawing on fixed and variable cost share data from the USDA, and European national Farm Business Surveys collated in the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Where the evidence for increasing returns to scale is clear, it follows that there is a clear case for the importance of making use of the Melitz model, or some alternative to the standard constant returns to scale assumption

Mass Degeneracies In Self-Dual Models

An algebraic restriction of the nonabelian self-dual Chern-Simons-Higgs systems leads to coupled abelian models with interesting mass spectra. The vacua are characterized by embeddings of $SU(2)$ into the gauge algebra, and in the broken phases the gauge and real scalar masses coincide, reflecting the relation of these self-dual models to $N=2$ SUSY. The masses themselves are related to the exponents of the gauge algebra, and the self-duality equation is a deformation of the classical Toda equations.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX (previous copy truncated

Exploring the complexities of understanding vulnerability and adult safeguarding within Christian Faith organisations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings from a study exploring the understanding of vulnerability and adult safeguarding within Christian faith based settings. The article concludes with recommendations for practitioners involved in safeguarding adults in faith based Christian settings. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers a survey (n=3182) into understanding of vulnerability and adult safeguarding for individuals who attend Church regularly or work in a Christian organisation Findings - This paper is the first to be undertaken with a UK sample and highlights a range of factors informing adult safeguarding practice within Christian organisations. This includes:- complexity linked to understanding vulnerability and its role in safeguarding activity; lack of clarity about what to do with a safeguarding adult concern, and the need for safeguarding training pertinent to the particular needs of faith based settings. Research limitations/implications - As there is currently a dearth of research in this area this paper makes a valuable contribution to the developing knowledge base around safeguarding and vulnerability within faith based organisations. Practical implications - Professionals need to develop increased understanding of the complexities involved in safeguarding activity, and specifically how those working in the wider context of supporting vulnerable adults make sense of safeguarding processes and procedures. Social implications – It is important that all organisations, including faith based settings, working with adults have an understanding of their roles and responsibilities with respect to safeguarding those at risk of harm. Originality - This paper is the first UK study to consider safeguarding adults at risk of harm in Christian faith context

Investigation of continuous-time quantum walk on root lattice AnA_n and honeycomb lattice

The continuous-time quantum walk (CTQW) on root lattice $A_n$ (known as hexagonal lattice for $n=2$) and honeycomb one is investigated by using spectral distribution method. To this aim, some association schemes are constructed from abelian group $Z^{\otimes n}_m$ and two copies of finite hexagonal lattices, such that their underlying graphs tend to root lattice $A_n$ and honeycomb one, as the size of the underlying graphs grows to infinity. The CTQW on these underlying graphs is investigated by using the spectral distribution method and stratification of the graphs based on Terwilliger algebra, where we get the required results for root lattice $A_n$ and honeycomb one, from large enough underlying graphs. Moreover, by using the stationary phase method, the long time behavior of CTQW on infinite graphs is approximated with finite ones. Also it is shown that the Bose-Mesner algebras of our constructed association schemes (called $n$-variable $P$-polynomial) can be generated by $n$ commuting generators, where raising, flat and lowering operators (as elements of Terwilliger algebra) are associated with each generator. A system of $n$-variable orthogonal polynomials which are special cases of \textit{generalized} Gegenbauer polynomials is constructed, where the probability amplitudes are given by integrals over these polynomials or their linear combinations. Finally the suppersymmetric structure of finite honeycomb lattices is revealed. Keywords: underlying graphs of association schemes, continuous-time quantum walk, orthogonal polynomials, spectral distribution. PACs Index: 03.65.UdComment: 41 pages, 4 figure