Rugby union only went professional in 1995, much later than other major team sports. League structures and arrangements regarding revenue sharing and salary caps differ between the three main European leagues. We consider the impact of these differences on competitive balance. In addition,...

We apply a new estimator to the measurement of the economic returns to education. We control for endogenous education, unobserved ability and measurement error using only the natural heteroscedasticty of wages and education attainment. Our prefered estimate, 6.07%, is closer to the OLS estimate...

Most theories of involuntary unemployment predict that the equilibrium wage in the labor market will be greater than the reservation wage of the unemployed. These theories concentrate on explaining why the labor market does not clear, with the market wage falling to the level of the reservation...

In the long run the economic incidence of a tax is unaffected by whether a tax is levied on workers, consumers or firms. In the short run, however, with wages and prices not fully flexible the incidence may be different. We test this hypothesis using aggregate time series data and examine the...

The reservation wage is an integral part of most theories of involuntary unemployment. We use panel data to examine the empirical determinants of the reservation wage - in particular the influence of previous wages - and consider what this implies for the evolution of the natu- ral rate of...

We analyse how progressive taxation and education subsidies affect schooling decisions when the returns to education are stochastic. We use the theory of real options to solve the problem of education choice in a dynamic stochastic model. We show that education attainment will be an increasing...

We analyse how progressive taxation and education subsidies affect schooling deci- sions when the returns to education are stochastic. We use the theory of real options to solve the problem of education choice in a dynamic, life-cycle consistent, stochastic model. We show that education...

We examine the ability of the Expansionary Fiscal Contraction (EFC) hypothesis to explain the performance of of OECD economies during times of crisis. We find some limited evidence in its favour - if public consumption is reduced in response to a fiscal crisis (as defned by a high level of...

We examine the usefulness of the Expansionary Fiscal Contrac- tion hypothesis in explaining the performance of the Irish and Danish economies. We find some evidence in favour of a weak version of the EFC hypotheisis - If the budget deficit is reduced in response to a fis- cal crisis, consumption...

Low rates of inflation have been recorded in the United States in recent years despite a decline in the unemployment rate. This phenomenon could be the result of a series of transitory shocks or of a permanent change in the structure of the economy leading to a lower NAIRU. The paper suggests...