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.

Voting Patterns, Party Spending and Space in England and Wales

There is a growing body of literature which suggests that voting patterns are not independent from space yet few empirical investigations exist which take explicit account of space. This article examines the determinants of voting patterns across constituencies in England and Wales using spatial econometric methods. The results suggest that while socioeconomic factors are key determinants of party vote shares in constituencies, there is strong spatial autocorrelation in voting patterns. We find that each major political party is influenced by space to different extents with the Liberal Democrats visibly exploiting spatial autocorrelation to increase their vote shares.2005 General Election, voting patterns, political party spending; spatial regression

Productivity and Proximity

Abstract: Papers examining a developed nation’s labour productivity frequently ignore spatial effects. We present empirical results indicating that geographical proximity matters for plant-level productivity.distance; labour productivity

Church Organists:Analysing their Willingness to Play

There currently exists a scarcity of church organ players even though they have traditionally been well paid. This paper presents an empirical investigation into the factors that affect the church organ player’s willingness to play. Results suggest pay does not attract the organ player to the position but being paid in situ increases their willingness to play, as do larger choir sizes and a better instrument quality. We also identify that organ players should be taught when they are young, as the younger the church organ player started learning the instrument then the greater their willingness to play.Religious participation; Willingness to play; Church Organ player

Economic Performace in Rural England

English economic policy requires different levels of government to pursue incommensurate, urban-centric, objectives. Rural areas are characterised by ‘softer’ development approaches centring on relocalisation. Measuring rural economic performance is obscured by the simultaneous use of two spatial platforms: the ‘city-region’ and the ‘rural definition’. The characteristics of these spatial platforms for measuring rural economic performance are explored through plant level productivity data. In general, English rural districts are less productive but particularly where they are both lagging and fall outside city regions. The city-region platform makes the rural productivity performance look worse than it really is but since 2000, rural districts have not been charged with pursuing productivity objectives anyway.Rural economic policy; productivity; skills; industrial structure

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.

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