Sociology and applied leisure research

Hendee, John C., “Sociology and Applied Leisure Research,” ANNALS OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Volume II, No. 3, January/February, 1975, pp. 155–162 — The importance of leisure activity as a social problem is growing and sociological research is challenged to contribute more to leisure problem areas with public or industrial policy implications. Leisure researchers must adapt their product to the current goal-oriented, cost-effective, budgeting criteria to compete for public money. Thus, the future of leisure research may depend partly on riding the coattails of applied work which is more easily funded. Studies linking leisure activity to broader society and the mainstream of sociological research are encouraged and, for example, might focus on: identifying the social meaning of recreating, improved techniques for predicting future use of leisure time and demand for leisure facilities, patterns and benefits of leisure activity. Joint ventures combining sociology and professional schools with policy and applied interests could help alleviate the sociologist's often neglected task of developing policy implication. In short, an appeal is made for relevant leisure research so that growth in the field may be supported by the utility of results.     

What Do Rental Contracts Reveal About Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard in Rental Housing Markets?

This article examines the pricing of rental contracts for two types of renter households: those who are able to amass a large, up-front security deposit and those with little, or no, security to offer. Empirical tests are presented to suggest that, in dealing with renter households who have little, or no, security to offer, landlords earn at a similar rate of return as lenders who make riskier loans at a high interest rate to borrowers of dubious credit. The analysis suggests that this situation occurs in large part because of the problem of asymmetric information and moral hazard between landlords and renter households regarding the latter's use of the premises.     

The Optimal Linear Income Tax Model: Utility or Equivalent Income?

This paper compares the use of equivalent income with that of utility, in the social welfare function, in optimal income tax models. Equivalent income is a money metric welfare measure that, unlike utility, is not affected by monotonic transformations of utility. The use of equivalent income is found to produce an optimal tax rate that is more sensitive to the degree of inequality aversion, compared with the use of utility. With Cobb-Douglas and CES utility functions, the optimal tax rate is the same for utility and equivalent income where relative inequality aversion is unity. When using equivalent incomes, the case for high marginal rates does not depend on the assumption of a very low elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure.     

Biases in demand analysis due to variation in retail distribution

Aggregate demand models typically assume that consumers choose between all available products. Since consumers may be unwilling to search across every store in a given market for a particular item, this assumption is problematic when product assortments vary across stores. Using supermarket scanner data for five product categories we demonstrate that approximately one third of products have limited retail distribution, which account for one fourth of dollar sales. Monte Carlo analysis demonstrates that the level of limited product availability observed in the data can significantly bias the results of aggregate demand models that incorrectly assume all consumers in a given market face the same choice set.