AFTER THE GREAT RECESSION: THE FUTURE OF CASINO GAMING IN AMERICA AND EUROPE

The economic recession of 2007–09 had dramatic effects on spending on gambling and, therefore, on a number of major gaming companies, resulting in situations where cash flows were increasingly inadequate to service debt obligations. The recession thus interrupted growth trends in various segments of casino industries in America and Europe, which undermined future growth expectations and potential. This analysis examines economic events and other factors that have affected the casino industry in the last few years, and examines their implications for the future of casino and gaming markets in America and Europe.     

Effects of governmental health policies in determining the size of a hospital at Chinle in the Navajo Indian Reservation.

This paper discusses the effect of government health policies on determining the size of a hospital at Chinle on the Navajo Reservation. The local residents and professional involvement and how they responded to these policies is discussed throughout the paper.Indian Health Service (IHS) provides health care to 720,000 Native American and Alaskan Native people. With the passage of Public Law 94–437, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, IHS was given a clearer legal mechanism for providing funds for services and facility construction. The Chinle Service Unit, on the Navajo Reservation, did not have a hospital and could be provided one under Public Law 94–437. The question is should they build a hospital at all and how large a hospital is needed?     

Stolen Gun Control

Guns stolen from law-abiding households provide an important source of guns for criminals. Crime rates increase with the availability of stolen guns, so the gun market is subject to externalities that generate excessive ownership and inadequate spending on protective measures to deter gun theft. We show that a simple refundable deposit for guns can internalize the externalities in the gun market and decrease gun theft and crime rates. We also show that the self-defense motive for gun ownership can lead to multiple equilibria.     

Do Reservation Native Americans Vote with Their Feet? A Re‐examination of Native American Migration, 1985–1990

Native Americans suffer some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment and the lowest rates of human capital attainment among racial minority groups in the United States, but economists understand very little about the impact these conditions have on the migration patterns of Native Americans. In 1994, a seminal article on this topic appeared in this journal (Cebula and Belton 1994). In their article, the authors suggest that the low levels of human capital and poor conditions in Native American reservations should make Native American migration sensitive to interstate differences in AFDC spending levels. Their hypothesis is confirmed for Native American migration over the 1985–1990 period. This paper refines their analysis by using micro-level rather than aggregate data, and by controlling for reservation residence and the impact of informal social safety nets in the source region. It is found that human capital factors and expected wage differences overwhelm interstate differences in public welfare spending and that informal safety nets in the source region dampen off-reservation migration. These findings suggest that state AFDC spending levels cannot explain contemporary Native American migration patterns.     

Industry Mix, Wages, and the Divergence of County Income in Pennsylvania

Per capita incomes have diverged across Pennsylvania counties. County incomes may differ because of differences in industrial structures and because of differences in earnings within industries; a county may have a below-average income because its industry mix is comprised of low paying jobs or because county jobs pay low wages compared to the same jobs in other counties. A procedure developed by Hanna (1951) is utilized to separate income differences into these two components by constructing two counterfactual incomes for each county. The handful of high-income counties in Pennsylvania have favorable wages while the counties with incomes below the state average, although with employment mixes comparable to the overall state mix, tend to have workers who receive low wages relative to the state industry average. Wages are low in the relatively poor counties due to less investment in physical and human capital.     

THE POLITICS OF CASINO GAMBLING

This paper examines the politics that has permeated the development and implementation of public policy in Britain around casino gambling during the last 15 years. Casino gambling is said to be always controversial, with many claims and counter‐claims about its impact on individuals and communities. The author reviews the evolution of the Gambling Act 2005 to highlight the nature of the politics of casino gambling in liberal democracies and draws some lessons from the British experience that may assist policy‐making with regard to casino gambling in the future.     

Crime in urban areas: New evidence and results

Crime supply functions are reestimated in this paper using data corrected for victim underreporting. It is found in both a mean-variance specification and a conventional crime supply function, which includes measures of the offender's gains and losses involved in property crimes, that certainty and severity of punishment still deter. When correction for underreporting is made, the effects on the rates of robbery, burglary, larceny, and auto theft of increases in prison admission rates and prison sentence lengths remain negative. This seeming support for the “deterrence hypothesis” must be balanced against the strong evidence that improved legitimate opportunities have a negative effect on crime. Use of improved crime data and a more intuitive economic specification of the offense supply function leads to the conclusion that higher income is a better deterrent to some crimes than increased punishment.     

Crime and Unemployment Among Youths in the United States, 1958-1990

A bstract . Unemployment and arrest time series data for persons aged 16 to 19 years in the United States from 1958 to 1990 show crime among youth to be associated with both the current level of youth unemployment and the annual change in the rate of youth unemployment. For violent offenses (homicide, rape and aggravated assault ), as well as for property offenses (robbery, burglary and larceny ), higher rates of youth unemployment are negatively associated with annual changes in the arrest rates of youth. Conversely, the lagged effect of youth unemployment is limited to property offenses, where annual changes in youth unemployment are positively related to annual changes in the arrest rates of youth for robbery, burglary and larceny, but negatively related to changes in the auto theft arrest rate.     

The Ethics of Countering the Private Counterfeiter: Rejoinder to Block

Counterfeiting is, and should be, a crime. It involves theft by deception, and the stealing of goods or other valuables using false claims to money. But what about counterfeiting money that is already counterfeit? In Block's interpretation, such an action amounts to seizing stolen goods from a thief. Counterfeiting simply relieves the original counterfeiter of his ill gotten gains and is therefore not theft itself. The present article offers a critique of this thesis of Block's on the basis that counterfeiting money involves the theft of property from innocent people.     

“窃电”行为构成诈骗罪之分析研究

在法律意义和司法实践中我们通常将窃电行为认定为盗窃罪。但是，随着科学技术的不断发展，各种各样的窃电行为也层出不穷，其行为表现也日趋复杂，因此对窃电行为的认定也具有相当大的难度。虽然主流观点是认为所有的窃电行为都构成盗窃罪，但是认真的分析一下该种认定显然是很偏颇的。文中就是从犯罪对象的定性、电费给付请求权以及行为人取得财产的最终手段等角度对窃电犯罪进行分析，从而认为部分窃电行为应该构成诈骗罪。     

The impact of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) on the value of S&L stocks

This study examines the effects of the Financial Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 on the stock returns to shareholders of publicly traded savings and loans (S&Ls). Abnormal returns to stockholders are measured in response to each new piece of information concerning the passage of the Act. Using weekly data to have the largest possible sample, we found two significant time periods: a) the initial announcement of the Act and b) the time of passage and signing of the Act into law. We also provide evidence that stock return behavior differed between large and small S&Ls.     

Decomposing the Triple-Helix synergy into the regional innovation systems of Norway: firm data and patent networks

The Triple Helix model of university-industry-government relations allows us to use mutual information among geographical, sectorial, and size distribution of firms to measure synergy at various geographical scales in a nation. In this paper we decompose the synergy in Triple Helix relations and analyze the decomposition at the county level. We use micro-level data for all Norwegian firms from 2002 to 2014. This provides new and more detailed insight into the factors explaining the previously reported variation in synergy at county level in Norway. Furthermore, we analyze the county and city level distributions of all national as well as USPTO granted patents with at least one Norwegian inventor. Co-inventor networks for Norwegian USPTO patents are visualized using Google maps. The counties with technology-dominated synergies and strong knowledge institutions have a higher level of international co-inventor networks. Sectorial and geographical networks characterize the oil and gas dominated county, Rogaland. In contrast the knowledge institution dominated county of Sør-Trøndelag has broader networks both with regard to sectors and geography. In the small industry dominated county of Møre og Romsdal with high synergy, the lack of international co-inventor network is striking. This might be interpreted as a sign of industrial lock-in. The use of both firm level and patent data together give a broader and more precise picture of the innovation systems under study. The use of both national and international patent data also broadens the picture of the innovation activity of the nation.     

判例法与美国汽车法规

文章通过对相关典型判例的介绍和分析,阐释了判例法与美国汽车法规之间的紧密联系。司法审查和解决法律适用冲突问题是判例法深刻影响汽车成文法规制定与实施的两种主要形式;专家意见证据在涉及汽车产品责任的司法诉讼中发挥了重要作用;耐撞性原则体现了判例法在汽车安全法律体系中依然独自承担使命。     

Impact of the Affordable Care Act on diabetes diagnoses in the United States: A county‐level analysis

Our research examines whether there is a causal effect between expanding health insurance and diabetes incidence. Comprehensive county‐level data from the United States is used to study the effect of Medicaid expansion on diabetes rates. The analysis is based on cross‐county variation according to Affordable Care Act health care reforms, along with county share‐eligibility variation. Difference‐in‐difference and triple‐difference statistical regression specifications are employed to control for confounding variables. The results suggest a slight negative relationship between expanding health insurance and diabetes diagnoses.     

Macau Metropolis and Mental Life: Interior Urbanism and the Chinese Imaginary

This article investigates the tendency towards an interiorized and encapsulated urbanity in Macau and the functional role of this phenomenon in the ‘mental life’ of Chinese consumers. A Portuguese territory for half a millennium, Macau was returned to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1999; the postcolonial, semi‐autonomous Macau Special Administrative Region has subsequently become the most lucrative casino gaming site in the world, far surpassing casino revenues earned in Las Vegas. This article investigates the manner in which the local government of the city‐state and the central government of the PRC have colluded with transnational capital to effect a remarkable enclosure of the urban commons in Macau. The entire city today may be understood as a biopolitical laboratory of consumption, where the PRC uses a preferential exit visa policy to allow tourists from select, relatively affluent provinces access to Macau. The new built environment of the city naturalizes a radical urban imaginary and corresponding post‐socialist ‘quality’ consumer subject; that subject is crucial to the macroeconomic goals of the PRC and the sustainability of global capitalism.     

Transient Crowding and Crime:

A bstract . The effects on crime rates of the intrusion of large numbers of strangers into an area are investigated. The sensitivity of six different crime types ( murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary , and larceny ) to density of strangers is estimated using a standard model of criminal behavior. The variables which reflect this density are measures of tourists, college students, shoppers from other areas, opportunities to consume alcohol , and the presence of interstate highway exits. The results suggest that an increase in the number of strangers into an area has a positive effect on the crimes of burglary, larceny, and robbery, but very little effect on assault, murder and rape. A significant finding is that "wet" counties have a higher incidence of each crime type than do "dry" counties. From a policy standpoint, officials who support economic growth in urban areas should keep in mind that an increase in the opportunity for illegal activity accompanies such growth and plan accordingly.     

Voting with a Hand on the Bible and Not on the Wallet: The 1996 Video Poker Referendum in Louisiana

Abstract . The 1996 gambling referendum in Louisiana provided a unique opportunity to study voters' preferences. At the time of the referendum, video poker machines legally operated in all of Louisiana's 64 parishes (counties). Video poker was voted down in 31 parishes and retained in 33 parishes. Voters also allowed the New Orleans land‐based casino and 15 riverboat casinos to continue their operations. The extant horse racing and pari‐mutuel betting were not voted on. We examine the economic, demographic, and religious factors that influenced how people voted on the issue of legalized video poker. This study is of interest because in recent years, legalized gambling has been expanding around the world. We know of no other referendum on gambling that covered an area as large as an entire U.S. state—all of Louisiana—and offered voters control over gambling in their locality. Months before the 1996 referendum, the news media suggested several factors that might determine the outcome of the vote. The media concluded that concern over jobs would be the major influence on the outcome. Other important factors included a campaign against gambling by Southern Baptist churches and the simultaneous national presidential election. We investigate whether these factors, along with demographic factors such as age and education, influenced the results of the gambling referendum. Surprisingly, we found no clear evidence that the economic health of a parish or the preexisting size of its gambling industry determined the vote. The presence of Southern Baptists in a parish increased the likelihood that gambling would be voted down. Democratic voters tended to vote for gambling, as did black voters. Age and education levels of voters did not appear to influence their votes on gambling. Voters in parishes that bordered other states were more likely to retain gambling. Overall, it appeared that personal values were more important in determining voter behavior than financial considerations. People were voting with their hearts, not their pocketbooks.     

Measuring small area variation in hospital use: site-of-care versus patient origin data.

There has been increasing attention paid to small area variation in hospital discharge rates. While there is general agreement about the importance of correcting for the migration of patients to hospitals outside their geographic area when constructing population-based hospital use rates for these small areas, there have been no studies of the sensitivity of simple correlations or multiple regression results to these adjustments. Given the paucity of patient origin data, which is needed to adjust hospital discharge rates for patient crossovers, the problems of measurement error present in the more readily available site-of-care data need to be addressed. This paper analyzes the variation in hospital discharge rates, both an unadjusted site-of-care rate and an adjusted patient origin rate, across the 68 counties in the lower peninsula of Michigan in 1980. The results indicate that both simple correlations and multiple regression results of these rates with socio-economic and health care resource characteristics of the counties are very sensitive to the specification of the discharge rate, with the analysis of the unadjusted rate potentially leading to incorrect policy recommendations. The explanatory power of the socio-economic characteristics is underestimated and that of health care resource measures most likely overestimated when the discharge rate is not adjusted for patient crossovers.     

Edge versus center: finding common ground in the capitalization debate

A continuing debate questions whether capitalization of taxes and public services into house price occurs. The current study argues for an inverse relationship between housing supply elasticity and capitalization rates. A sample is split into houses on the interior and edge of the urban area. Capitalization of schooling and crime occurs everywhere, but it is weaker toward the edge of an urban area where housing supply elasticities and developer activity are greater. Tax results are less robust, but the capitalization rates of crime and school quality are roughly twice as strong on the interior than on the urban fringe.     

Problems in Quantifying the Social Costs and Benefits of Gambling

A bstract .   As casinos and other forms of gambling spread across the United States, voters and policymakers are becoming increasingly interested in the potential costs and benefits from expansion in gambling industries. Since the mid-1990s, a variety of cost-benefit research has been published, much of it using flawed methodologies. This paper examines some of the most important areas of debate and disagreement among gambling researchers, and explains why the quantification of the costs and benefits of gambling is problematic.