Patterns of economic change in the south‐west during the fifteenth century: evidence from the reductions to the fifteenths and tenths

The fifteenth century rebates to the fifteenth and tenth form a large body of evidence which has rarely been used to assess economic change. They were set by local commissioners who employed their knowledge of the conditions within their counties. In many cases the commissioners can be demonstrated to have applied the reductions in a thoughtful and proportionate manner, often revealing local economic conditions. There is considerable variation in their application between counties and their use is greatly enhanced when compared with other sources.     

Some Reflections on the Ubiquity of Regulation

The authors argue, using historical examples from finance, the production of wine and music, that competition within the rule of law, without government regulation, produces desirable outcomes.     

Testing for rational expectations in the UK National Lottery

The concept of rational expectations has typically been assumed, without testing, in the analysis of consumer demand and market efficiency in betting markets, including betting on lottery games. Lottery games offer an excellent opportunity to test how participants process the information that is available to them. Using the UK National Lottery as our particular case, we find that participants, in general, efficiently process available information. Specifically, they act as if they can, on average, forecast the level of sales for a given drawing.     

Impact of importing foreign talent on performance levels of local co-workers

When skilled labour is imported to work in a creative industry, local workers may benefit, in terms of their own level of skill, through contact with new techniques and practices. European basketball offers an opportunity to investigate the reality of this general claim. For a panel of 47 European countries observed over more than twenty years, we model probability of qualification for, and subsequent performance in, Olympic Tournaments and World and European Championships. We demonstrate that, consistent with the spillover hypothesis, an increase in the number of foreigners in a domestic league tends to generate a subsequent improvement in the performance of the national team (which has to be comprised only of local players).     

Sport and Gambling

We review the relationships between gambling and sport. Britishsports and sports infrastructure have benefited considerablyfrom funding through the National Lottery. We argue that thereis an implicit sports tax on lottery products and that thispolicy may be neither efficient nor equitable. We suggest thatfurther research, employing contingent valuation methodology,would be required before any firm conclusion could be made overwhether the spending facilitated by the tax represents an efficientallocation of resources. Betting on events and outcomes in sport,especially team sports, has become a high-growth sector; weexplore the potential for sports to capture some of this bettorspending and discuss associated public-policy issues. Whilesport may extract revenue from betting, there are also costs.We focus especially on betting corruption in sports, developingan expected utility framework to show where the risk of corruptionis most likely to arise and what regulatory options are opento sports governing bodies and government.     

Debt,deficits, and inflation

This article sketches the theory of debt finance and cites historical evidence on the sustainability of debt. If it is accepted that the future should under the current circumstances of COVID‐19 help to alleviate the problems of the present, then debt finance is in principle appropriate. It need not lead to an explosive rise in the debt‐to‐GNP ratio. British history shows that the theory can work in practice. A satisfactory outcome, however, depends on government being reliable, honest, and competent. Trust is easily lost and hard to restore.     

The adverse impacts of local historic designation: The case of small apartment buildings in Philadelphia

This paper examines the sales effects of local historic preservation. Using the hedonic framework our study shows that small historic apartment buildings experienced a 24% reduction in price compared to nonlocally certified properties. Our variable for federal historic districts, however, produced statistically insignificant results. The results suggest that historic control (as practiced in Philadelphia) is confiscatory. The study illustrates an outcome of public regulation that impinges on private property rights.     

Strategic alliances between large and small research intensive organizations: experiences in the biotechnology industry

Abstract
For many firms, entering into some form of collaborative arrangement with other organizations has become a necessary step towards improving their competitive positions. This is particularly true of research intensive companies which frequently participate in such strategic alliances (SAs). This paper reports on the experiences of some 70 North American firms with SAs in the biotechnology industry. The sample includes small dedicated biotechnology companies (DBCs) and large organizations, such as pharmaceutical firms.