The implications of athlete freedom to contract: lessons from North America

The 1995 Bosman judgement by the European Court of Justice granted professional athletes in Europe inter-country freedom to contract and eased foreign-player restrictions. Based on two decades of free-agency experience in North America, we expect to see salaries of European players rise substantially, top players earn more while marginal players earn less, and players absorb more of their training costs. Ticket prices and competitive balance will be unaffected. Clubs and leagues will be likely to attempt to control player costs by instituting schemes such as payroll caps and increased revenue sharing.     

A cross‐cultural exploration of materialism in adolescents

To date, few studies have empirically examined specific values with respect to the global teenager hypothesis. In testing the global teenager hypothesis, this study investigates similarities and differences in materialism among 14‐ to 17‐year olds in China, Japan and the USA. Significant differences were found between respondents from the three nations for materialism and discretionary spending power. Discretionary spending power had a significant effect on materialism across nations. In addition, evidence supports cross‐national differences in the psychological structure of the materialism construct. While personal gain and social gain explain two materialism dimensions for the Japanese and American samples, factor analysis results suggest materialism may have alternative conceptual underpinnings in China. The findings of this study generally fail to support the global teenager hypothesis as it relates to the value of materialism.     

A theoretical model of pedestrian flow

An entropy-maximizing model of a generalized pedestrian flow system is developed. This model is based on a fundamental conception of pedestrian traffic as being contained within a linear network. The model then maximizes the entropy of pedestrian flow within any given network, subject to a basic set of Kirchoff conditions. The resulting final equations are a special case of the gravity model. A general solution method is discussed and several numerical experiments with the model are described.     

Searching for the best price: An experimental look at consumer search effort

Certain factors may influence the extent to which consumers are willing to expend effort bargaining with retailers in order to gain additional pre-purchase information. One factor could be the consumer's favorable or unfavorable orientation toward the bargaining process itself. Another factor could be consumer expectation as to whether bargaining is permitted by retailers. A third factor might be whether a consumer's actual participation in bargaining encourages, or discourages, additional search activity. This research reports the results of a shopping simulation experiment which suggests that greater search effort is associated with individuals who are favorably predisposed toward retail bargaining and/or expect bargaining to be appropriate in a given situation.