Crisis is governance : sub-prime, the traumatic event, and bare life

The article provides a critical analysis of the role of discourses of trauma and the traumatic event in constituting the ethico-political possibilities and limits of the subprime crisis. It charts the invocation of metaphors of a financial Tsunami and pervasive media focus on emotional ‘responses’ like fear, anger, and blame, suggesting that such traumatic discourses constituted the subprime crisis as a singular and catastrophic ‘event’ demanding of particular (humanitarian) responses. We draw upon the thought of Giorgio Agamben to render this constituted logic of event and response in terms of the concomitant production of bare life; the savers and homeowners who became ‘helpless victims’ in need of rescue. We therefore tie the ongoing production of the sovereign power of global finance to broader processes that entail the enfolding and securing of everyday financial subjects. These arguments are illustrated via an analysis of three subjects: the economy, bankers and borrowers. We argue that it was the movement between subject positions – from safe to vulnerable, from entrepreneurial to greedy, from victim to survivor, etc. - that marked out the effective manner of governance, confirming in this process sovereign categories of financial citizenship, asset based welfare, and securitisation that many would posit as the very problem. In short, (the way that the) crisis (was constituted) is governance

Monopoly rents and price fixing in betting markets

Betting markets provide an ideal environment in which to examine monopoly power due to the availability of detailed information on product pricing. In this paper we argue that the pricing strategies of companies in the UK betting industry are likely to be an important source of monopoly rents, particularly in the market for forecast bets. Pricing in these markets are shown to be explicitly coordinated. Further, price information is asymmetrically biased in favor of producers. We find evidence, based on UK data, that pricing of CSF bets is characterized by a significantly higher markup than pricing of single bets. Although this differential can in part be explained by the preferences of bettors, it is reasonable to attribute a significant part of the differential as being due to monopoly power

'Quarbs' and Efficiency in Spread Betting Markets: can you beat the book?

In this paper, we examine a relatively novel form of gambling, index (or spread) betting, that mirrors (and indeed overlaps with) practices in conventional financial markets. In this form of betting, a number of bookmakers quote a bid-offer spread about the result of some future event, and bettors are invited to buy (sell) at the top (bottom) end of the quoted spreads. We hypothesise that the existence of an outlying spread may provide uninformed traders with information that can be used to develop improved trading strategies. Using conditional moment tests on data from a popular spread betting market in the United Kingdom, we find that in the presence of a number of price-setters, the market mid-point is indeed a better predictor of asset values than the outlying price. We further show that this information can be used to develop trading strategies that lead to returns that are consistently positive and superior to those from noise trading and, in some cases, significantly so.

A policy response to the e-commerce revolution: the case of betting taxation in the UK

Several environmental changes in the 1990s – including the introduction of a national lottery, the rise of Internet gambling, and the reduction of trade barriers within the EU – induced the UK government to initiate a large-scale review of betting duty. As a result of this review, the government recently announced a significant reduction in betting taxes. They also decided to replace the current general betting duty (GBD), levied as a proportion of betting stakes, with a gross profits tax (GPT), based on the net revenue of bookmakers. We examine the economic rationale behind these decisions and demonstrate how these tax changes have broad implications regarding optimal levels of taxation for other sources of government revenue

Dividends, stock repurchases and signaling: evidence from U.S. panel data

This paper exploits yearly accounting data from 1977 to 1994 to test the relative signaling power of dividends and net stock repurchases. The specification controls for potential agency cost and asset dissipation effects. Specifically, we regress changes in future income before extraordinary items on changes in dividends, changes in net stock repurchases, and a host of control variables. We also split the sample at 1981 to measure the impact of changes in the relative taxation of distribution methods. For the full twenty-year sample, only dividend changes are correlated with changes in future income. Moreover, the dividend coefficient and the repurchases coefficient differ statistically different in every future income equation. Splitting the sample reveals that the pre-1981 subsample drives the full-sample results. Put another way, the empirical link between changes in dividends and changes in future income vanishes just as a revision of the tax law reduced the tax disadvantage of dividend distributions. This evidence supports the notion that, at least for a period in time, firms deliberately exposed shareholders to punitive taxation to signal favorable prospects.Corporate governance

The Churchill betting tax, 1926-30: a historical and economic perspective

This paper examines British Government policy with regard to the taxation of betting, from a historical and economic perspective. The taxation of betting is traced to the introduction in 1926 of a tax on betting turnover by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill. By 1930 the tax had been scrapped. This paper seeks to examine what lessons can be learned from this attempt at the introduction of a new tax and from subsequent Government policy with respect to betting taxation, and asks what policy implications can be drawn by other countries experimenting with the introduction of taxes on the turnover or gross profits of their betting operators

Forecasting the decisions of the US Supreme Court: lessons from the ‘affordable care act’ judgment

This paper examines the 2012 US Supreme Court consideration of the Affordable Care Act, and the resulting judgment, with a view to learning what lessons this landmark case can afford us into the way in which the US Supreme Court works, so helping us forecast its decisions. Although this is simply one judgment among many, a case is advanced here that the details of the way that the judgment was made can be used to help arbitrate between conflicting interpretations in the literature as to the way that the US Supreme Court reaches its decisions. It is argued that consideration of this case does provide particular insights which might usefully improve forecasts of future Supreme Court decisions

The Curious Case of Betting Taxation in the UK: Lessons and Implications

In 1926 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill, introduced a tax on betting into the UK, claiming he was looking not for trouble, but for revenue. He got a lot of the former but very little of the latter, and the tax was repealed in 1930. Cash betting in licensed betting offices was legalised in 1960, and the taxation of betting was re-introduced in 1966, based on turnover. In 2001, this turnover system of taxation was abolished and replaced with a tax on ‘gross profits’. The effective incidence of the tax was significantly lower than the tax it replaced, and was not passed on to bettors. This new system of betting taxation was later extended to include other types of gambling, including football pools, bingo and betting exchanges, and in 2013 was extended generally to gambling machines. This paper considers the development of betting tax in the UK and in particular the effect of the switch to a ‘gross profits’ tax on the gambling sector, and considers what more general implications this has for the way in which gambling, and in particular gambling machines, should be taxed in other jurisdictions

Analysis of trends in total and aidsrelated deaths certified at Mosvold Hospital, Ingwavuma, KwaZulu-Natal, from 2003 to 2008

Objectives. To analyse mortality trends from deaths registered at Mosvold Hospital, Ingwavuma, KwaZulu-Natal, and possible impact of programmes to treat and prevent HIV infection. Design. Longitudinal study of death certifications from 2003 to 2008. Setting. Mosvold Hospital mortuary, Ingwavuma. Subjects. Counterfoils of form 83/BI-1663, Notification/Register of Death/Stillbirths (Republic of South Africa, Department of Home Affairs), completed at Mosvold Hospital from January 2003 to December 2008. Outcome measures. Age at death, cause of death, patterns of deaths grouped by age, gender and cause of death. Results. AIDS-related deaths were the cause of 53% of deaths, particularly affecting the 20 - 59-year and under-5 age groups. Since 2005 there has been a decline in deaths in the 20 - 59 age group and an increase in average age at death. Conclusions. The decrease in mortality from 2005 may be associated with antiretroviral roll-out reducing mortality from AIDS-related illnesses

It is with considerable pleasure that we present the inaugural issue of the Journal of Gambling Business and Economics

There is a long-standing gap in the market for a journal that provides an outlet for academics and practitioners who have an interest in the economic and business aspects of the rapidly growing international gambling market. This journal is designed to fill this gap