Methodological Triangulation at the Bank of England:An Investigation

This paper investigates the extent to which triangulation takes place within the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) process at the Bank of England. Triangulation is at its most basic, the mixing of two or more methods, investigators, theories, methodologies or data in a single investigation. More specifically, we argue for triangulation as a commitment in research design to the mixing of methods in the act of inference. The paper argues that there are many motivations for triangulation as well as types of triangulation. It is argued that there is evidence of extensive triangulation of different types within the MPC process. However, there is very little theoretical triangulation present; raising concerns about pluralism. Also, it is argued that the triangulation which occurs is mainly undertaken for pragmatic reasons and does not reflect other, coherent ontological and epistemological positions.

Participation, Spectatorship and Media Coverage in Sport

This article considers the relationship between active participation in sport, sports spectatorship and television viewing habits using data from the 2005 DCMS Taking Part Survey. We find robust evidence that participation and sports spectatorship are symbiotically linked. In contrast, increase TV viewing per se leads to a reduction in participation.spectator demand; sporting participation; count models

Trust, Trustworthiness, Relational Goods and Social Capital: A Cross-Country Economic Analysis

For a sample of 34 countries, this paper examines the impact that relational goods have on trust and, more specifically, trustworthiness; that is the degree of trust placed in others. Relational goods emanate from social interactions, which can be viewed as underpinning the development of social capital in the sense of helping to form trust in society. The relational goods examined comprise both informal activities such as meeting with family and friends, as well as more formal but voluntary association connected with participation in cultural, political, civic, sport and religious organisations. As the measure of trust comprises an ordered variable, a variety of ordered estimators are applied to the data, including attempts to account for the country-specific grouping of observation and, as a consequence, unobserved heterogeneity. The results suggest that whilst informal relational activities tend to generate trustworthiness, consistent with the concept of ‘thick’ trust, along with cultural and civic association and frequent political association, there is less evidence that sports does. In addition, the results suggest that religious association can actually reduce trustworthiness along with less frequent political association. Therefore, the results suggest, that it is the type and frequency of associational activity that contributes to the development of trustworthiness, rather than its existence per se.Trust, relational goods, social capital

An investigation into talent identification and development in English Netball

The Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy (ISLP) at Loughborough University was pleased to respond to a request by Cathy Partridge, Regional Talent Officer for the East Midlands, and Kelly Parkyn, Talent Manager for England Netball, to investigate talent identification and development in netball. The context of the evaluation is the recent change in Sport England’s strategy from a policy of Long-term Athlete Development (LTAD) to one in which National Governing Bodies and sports clubs will be charged with ensuring that they Grow participation in their sport, that they Sustain participation in their sport and also to ensure that talent progresses to an elite level, that is Excel

Explaining variability in the investment location choices of MNEs: an exploration of country, industry and firm effects

This paper examines the variation in foreign direct investment (FDI) location decisions of European multinational enterprises (MNEs.) An innovative empirical approach is applied to a new data set which contains over 15,000 individual FDI location decisions in 25 European countries over a 17-year period and combines country, industry and firm level factors. The empirical results show that the responsiveness of FDI location choices to country-level factors is heterogeneous both across sectors and across firms of different characteristics as well as unobserved factors. In particular the results show that the importance of the market size, good infrastructure and Western business and legal environment increases with investing firm’s size, while proximity, as well as cultural and linguistic ties are more important for smaller firms

Assessing the impact of the National Cycle Network and physical activity lifestyle on cycling behaviour in England

This paper examines the association between access to National Cycle Network (NCN) routes in England and an individual’s cycling behaviour whilst accounting for their broader physical activity lifestyle and controlling for their socio-economic circumstances. It identifies a positive association between access to these routes and the total minutes of any form of cycling, and the number of days that cycling takes place primarily for recreational purposes. The broader physical activity of individuals also has a positive association with cycling. Walking appears most likely to be complementary to non-recreational cycling, whilst participation in sport with all forms of cycling, but not with longer duration utilitarian trips. The research also indicates that access to NCN routes has the potential to increase such cycling further, with the exception of longer utilitarian trips, as does a more physically active lifestyle, particularly walking. The main policy implications of the research are to recognise that cycling is intrinsically linked to other physical activity, notably, walking, but that the NCN routes measured in this study primarily support longer duration recreational activity, which is also affected by sporting activity. This suggests that one avenue for achieving the health benefits of cycling may be through promoting NCN routes to harness a more generally active lifestyle and particularly in leisure, whilst sustainability may be further promoted through being linked more to other active travel such as walking. There is a therefore a need to exploit the potential of such NCN route provision as part of this promotion

‘No man is an island entire of itself.’ The hidden effect of peers on physical activity: John Donne, Meditation XVII

International public policy emphasises the need to increase current low levels of physical activity (WHO 2010). A large literature examines the reasons for the low levels of physical activity but tends to focus on the correlates of behaviour. This has prompted a call for more causal research to better support policy recommendations to change behaviour (Bauman et al. 2012). Using a large sample of individuals from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) between 1996/7 and 2006/7, a dynamic panel data analysis is employed to reveal a causal contemporaneous effect of a household peer’s participation in physical activity on an individual’s behaviour. The effect of a peer’s physical activity on an individual’s physical activity is found to be of a magnitude commensurate with the habits of the individual. An individual’s participation in physical activity is also positively associated with their other leisure activity. The research suggests that an individual’s physical activity takes place as part of a portfolio of household leisure, which health promotion needs to take account of

Heterogeneous sports participation and labour market outcomes in England

Based on a unique composite dataset measuring heterogeneous sports participation, labour market outcomes and local facilities provision, this paper examines for the first time the association between different types of sports participation and employment and earnings in England. Clear asso-ciations between labour market outcomes and sports participation are established through matching estimation whilst controlling for some important confounding factors. The results, which are supple-mented and supported by a formal sensitivity analysis, suggest a link between different types of sports participation to initial access to employment and then higher income opportunities with ageing. How-ever, these vary between the genders and across sports. Specifically, the results suggest that team sports contribute most to employability, but that this varies by age across genders and that outdoor activities contribute most towards higher incomes

Exploring spillovers between government quality and individual health production through sport and physical activity

Research question: The purpose of this study is to examine whether and how government quality is related to individual health production through sport and physical activity. Previous research has only examined the role of government through the lens of government spending and provision of facilities, but not the role of government quality per se. Research methods: Individual survey data from the 2013 Eurobarometer (n=20,419) were combined with data on government quality and expenditure as well as GDP for 21 European countries. The sport and physical activity measures reflect whether an individual’s activity level (including or excluding walking) is below the guidelines of the World Health Organization, meets, or exceeds them, securing extra health benefits. Results and findings: The results of multi-level models show that government quality is significantly and positively associated with individual sport and physical activity meeting or exceeding the guidelines, controlling for GDP and government spending. The empirical evidence suggests that there are spillovers between government quality and individual health production through sport and physical activity. Implications: The findings indicate that a more open and accountable government can provide the regulatory framework and tolerance required for more effective structural delivery of sport and physical activity in society