The safety attitudes of people who use multi-purpose recreation facilities as a physical activity setting

Multi-purpose recreation facilities (MPRFs) are a popular setting for physical activity and it is therefore important that they are safe for all patrons. However, the attitudes of MPRF users towards safety are a potential barrier to the success of injury prevention programmes implemented within MPRFs. This article reports a survey of the safety attitudes of over 700 users of four indoor MPRFs. Factor analysis of 12 five-point Likert scale statements showed that the attitudes clustered around three major dimensions - the importance of safety, the benefits of safety and the perceptions of injury risk. Together, these three dimensions accounted for 49% of the variability in the attitudes. More than 85% of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that: safety was an important aspect of physical activity participation; being injured affected enjoyment of physical activity; people should adopt appropriate safety measures for all physical activity; and individuals were responsible for their own safety. The MPRF users, particularly women and older people, were generally safety conscious, believed in adopting safety measures, and were willing to take responsibility for their own safety. Facility managers can be confident that if they provide evidence-based injury prevention interventions in these settings, then users will respond appropriately and adopt the promoted behaviours.     

Monopoly and the problem of the economists

By any measure economists have played increasingly prominent roles in antitrust policy making, at least since the early 1970s. Indeed, the approach to the analysis of public policy toward business pioneered by Chicago school economists dominates the academic literature nowadays. According to the Chicago school's adherents, their insistence that antitrust be examined through the lens of price theory should have produced discernably ‘better’ (read pro-consumer) laws and ‘better’ law enforcement. This paper contends that economists have in fact not had a positive influence on antitrust policy, but have instead actively contributed to its use as a way of subverting competitive market forces.     

Bank Credit Cards: Consumer Irrationality versus Market Forces

Why are bank card interest rates sticky? One explanation is bank card consumer irrationality, a potentially significant market failure requiring government intervention. Alternate explanations focus on efficient market forces. The 1989 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances data are not consistent with the consumer irrationality hypothesis. The data are consistent with a market-based model of demand for balances and suggest that consumers may rationally eschew search because small outstanding balances imply low returns to search.     

Warranties: Continued Readability Problems After the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act

A major thrust of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act (MMWA) passed by Congress in 1975 is to make warranties “easy to read and understand.” This study examines readability levels for 121 warranties in ten categories of consumer durables. The warranties analyzed are found to require readability levels beyond what most Americans have attained. Limited warranties require significantly higher readability levels than full warranties. Results suggest the MMWA, since passage in 1975, may have increased the number of limited warranties and the difficulty of reading level.     

Does technology licensing matter for privatization?

In mixed oligopolies, technology licensing from a cost‐efficient firm to a cost‐inefficient firm has been widely observed. This paper examines the relationship between privatization and licensing (by public or private firms) with the consideration of either a domestic or a foreign private firm. We find that (a) in the case of a domestic private firm, public licensing facilitates privatization, but private licensing hinders privatization; (b) in the case of a foreign private firm, both public and private licensing facilitate privatization. Our results yield important policy implications on privatization.     

Regulatory initiatives and related activities in the United States

Prevention of chemical incidents is an important issue in the chemical petroleum industries. This issue is receiving focus and attention from a wide spectrum—Industry, Labor, Professional Associations, Environmental Groups Government and the Public. The purpose of this paper is to review the various regulatory initiatives and related activities regarding chemical process safety.     

The Effects of Minimum Wages on Low‐Skilled Immigrants’ Wages,Employment, and Poverty

Raising the minimum wage has been advanced as complementary policy to comprehensive immigration reform to improve low‐skilled immigrants’ economic well‐being. While adverse labor demand effects could undermine this goal, existing studies do not detect evidence of negative employment effects. We re‐investigate this question using data from the 1994 to 2016 Current Population Survey and conclude that minimum wage increases reduced employment of less‐educated Hispanic immigrants, with estimated elasticities of around –0.1. However, we also find that the wage and employment effects of minimum wages on low‐skilled immigrants diminished over the last decade. This finding is consistent with more restrictive state immigration policies and the Great Recession inducing outmigration of low‐skilled immigrants, as well as immigrants moving into the informal sector. Finally, our results show that raising the minimum wage is an ineffective policy tool for reducing poverty among immigrants.