The impact on the demand for a gambling product of the introduction of a competing product is a topical issue in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere. We consider empirically the demand for Lotto itself and for fixed-odds betting on the Lotto draw. The evidence suggests that these products are...

This paper deals with a novel problem of price search in a world where futures markets play an important role. In the absence of the futures market, customers are unable to tell whether a high spot quote reflects a fundamental change in market conditions or whether they have run into a...

This article shows that nonlinearity can provide an explanation for the forward exchange rate anomaly (Fama, 1984). Using sterling-Canadian dollar data and modelling nonlinearity of unspecified form by means of a random field, we find strong evidence of time-wise nonlinearity and, significantly,...

Using nominal and real exchange rates for Ireland relative to Germany and the UK from 1975 to 2003, this article explores likely sources of nonlinearity in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) relationships and difficulties in employing an I(1)/I(0) econometric framework. Tests for fractional...

As of January 1, 1995, Israel's National Health Insurance (NHI) Law laid the foundations for regulating competition among the country's four private, not-for-profit sick funds. Prior to NHI the sick funds (SFs) had competed without governmental control. Extensive research on NHI implementation...

In this paper we give an account of the approach to nonlinear econometric modelling proposed by Hamilton (2001) and briefly describe some of the methods of nonlinear optimization that may be used in the Gauss computer program provided by Hamilton for the implementation of his methodology. The...