Supporter Influence on Club Governance in a Sports League; a “Utility Maximization” Model

The article formalizes a seminal suggestion of Sloane ( 1971 ), studying a sports league in which club objectives are multi‐argument utility functions defined over profits, win percentages and fan (=supporter) welfare, thus combining the three objectives that have been addressed separately in previous models. Particular focus is on the consequences of increasing the utility weight on fan welfare, to capture the recent increasing supporter involvement in club governance in UK football. Positive consequences are unambiguously higher attendances, with more nuanced affects on ticket prices and player expenditure. A normative consequence is that positive profits for club owners indicate social sub‐optimality.     

Electricity pool prices: a case study in nonlinear time-series modelling

This paper considers modelling the behaviour of prices in the English and Welsh wholesale electricity Pool since the creation of this spot market in 1990. The process turns out to be nonlinear and a logistic smooth transition autoregressive model is fitted and shown to be superior to a linear alternative. The behaviour of the estimated model is discussed, and it is seen that nonlinearity is needed to describe the institutional characteristics and historical path of pool prices.     

Preference for Restorative Situations: Interactive Effects of Attentional State,Activity-in-Environment,and Social Context

This study extends research on psychological restoration by encompassing a broad set of restorative situations available to urban residents. Preferences are assessed for mundane restorative situations comprising leisure activity, setting, and social context, given different levels of attentional fatigue. Attentional fatigue, activity-setting, and social context were experimentally manipulated. The settings for activities were home, park, city center, and transit. Participants (N = 70) read scenarios describing an attentional state and rated their preference for the situations. Results show interactive effects of attentional state with activity-setting and with social context. The park was most preferred given attentional fatigue. Results confirm that while residents may particularly value urban nature for restoration, their urban context also provides other mundane but attractive restorative situations.