Sociocultural dimensions of tourism history

This paper explores some of the sociocultural issues that surround tourism history. It is contended that tourist activity is socially differentiated, but that this is by no means solely a product of prevailing class and related structural constraints. Instead, importance must be attached to the cultural setting within which activity is located and to the role of the consumer in creating new opportunities. Two case studies — plotland development and holiday camps — are used to demonstrate the thesis. Conclusions are drawn in respect of the study of tourism history, arguing for interdisciplinarity, for comparative research, and for further work on the inter-relationships between societal constraints and individual opportunities.     

A qualitative response model of student performance on a standardized test

Summary A national sample of high school students who took the Test of Economic Literacy was analyzed by the use of probit analysis and OLS to determine what factors influence high levels of performance on an achievement test. The statistically significant factors were combined SAT scores, the teacher's course work in the subject matter, whether the teacher has a high degree of enthusiasm toward the teaching of the subject, and, for students who scored over 30 on the TEL, whether the student does more than two hours of homework a night.     

Decision-making in the two-act antitrust decision problem

This paper focuses on the antitrust decision-making process as it pertains to anti-merger policy as a special case of the more general two-act decision problem. We employ the Analytic Hierarchy Process to analyze some prominent antitrust merger decision. The analysis suggests that the courts have failed to give potential competition its due when it acts to dampen any alleged market power accruing to the market leader, which in turn suggests that the defendants would be well advised to reorient the weight that they give to potential competition in designing their defense.