The University of Buckingham Press Journals
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Compliance, Criminality, and Climate Change Policy in the Grenfell Tower Fire
Full text linkThough the Report of Phase 2 the Grenfell Tower Inquiry is critical of many involved in the Grenfell Tower fire, its criticism of regulatory non-compliance by the manufacturers of the products used in the cladding of the Tower has been of a severity which has led to a general public call for some of those manufacturers and their employees to be prosecuted for the most serious criminal offences. This justification of this severity is, however, undermined by the Inquiry ’s analysis of the manufacturers’ conduct being seriously inadequate in terms of regulatory theory and practice. Differing forms of non-compliance are insufficiently distinguished, and the Inquiry’s criticism of private companies is not at all balanced by its criticism of public bodies. But it was public bodies which failed in their specific regulatory duties, and, in pursuit of climate change policies, gave the general impetus to the cladding of the Grenfell Tower which was the cause of the fire
Responsible Gambling and Customer Loyalty, Satisfaction, Retention of Integrated Resort: Does Customer Awareness Matter?
No full textAlthough many prior empirical studies have proved that corporate responsibility (CSR) has a positive effect on customer relationships, there is a lack of studies on integrated resorts (IRs), which have garnered increasing attention worldwide. This study aims to investigate whether “responsible gambling”, as a special CSR strategy, can affect customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. Using data collected from Grand Lisboa, which is known as the representative integrated resort in Macau, it can be demonstrated that responsible gambling positively influences the customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and customer retention of an integrated resort, customer awareness can mediate the effect between responsible gambling and customer relationships of integrated resorts. This study contributes to responsible gambling and customer relations by developing a research model of how responsible gambling impacts customer relationships, filling some gaps in previous studies, and revealing some new findings in the correlated field of integrated resorts in Asia
Multilingual X / Twitter Sentiment Analysis of Geopolitical Risk Using Granger Causality Focusing on the Ukraine War and Financial Markets
No full textThis paper investigates the changes in the financial assets and markets from December 1st, 2021, to April 30th, 2022, during the start of the Ukraine War. These dates roughly correspond to the prelude to the War in December 20211 to a few weeks after Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv area on April 7th, 20222. We used the Goldstein 19923 Results Table to create Positive and Negative Geopolitical Risk bigrams (Goldstein, 1992, Pg. 5–6). With these bigrams, we collected over 3.6 million tweets during our research period in seven different languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean) to capture worldwide reaction to the Ukraine War. Using various sentiment analysis methods, we constructed a time series of the change in the daily Geopolitical Risk sentiment and explored its relationship to 39 different financial assets and markets at various time lags. We found through granger causality that the geopolitical risk time series contained predictive information on several assets and market changes at different lag times
Impacts of Increased Free-play on Casino Revenue and Visitation
No full textThis research seeks to measure the impact of increased promotional incentives on casino revenue and visitation frequency. Free-play has become the primary casino marketing expense in many of the world’s casinos, yet little is known about the efficacy of offers, or how customers respond to changes in existing offer levels. This randomized controlled trial featured a within-subjects design, with patronage data collected in year-over-over sample periods of 180 days each. Paired-samples t tests were employed to measure customer responses to increases in the par level of their free-play offers. A preponderance of results indicated that considerable increases in free-play awards failed to produce significant changes in both the player’s own-money losses and visitation frequency. The outcomes failed to support the notion of operant conditioning, but were generally in line with reactance theory. This was the first longitudinal study to experimentally examine the effects of increases in free-play offers on revenue and visitation data, in a within-subjects design. Analysis of actual performance data added to the value and utility of this research. Casino marketers are provided with critical insight on the ability of increased free-play awards to affect targeted behaviors. Few studies have experimentally manipulated these offers, leaving casino marketers with a paucity of rigorous research on their primary play incentive. Additionally, the changes in behavior were measured from an established/baseline offer level, rather than no offer. This design provides management with results applicable to potential revisions of existing free-play campaigns
Gambling in a Developing Market: Exploring Institutional Voids Through Netnography
No full textThe study investigates how institutional voids influence the growth of online gambling platforms in Brazil, focusing on virtual casinos and sports betting. The research adopts non-participatory netnography as its methodology, combining observations on two selected platforms with analyses of search trends on Google Trends™ (2019–2024). The findings indicate that institutional voids, characterized by the absence of regulatory norms and structures, allow platforms to exploit normative gaps to operate and attract consumers. Simultaneously, users expressed distrust regarding the integrity and transparency of the games, highlighting perceptions of manipulation and dissatisfaction with outcomes. The theoretical contribution of the study lies in applying the concept of institutional voids to a rapidly expanding digital market, thereby enhancing understanding of the impacts of deregulation in developing countries. Practically, the study underscores the urgency of establishing a regulatory framework that balances technological innovation, consumer protection, and social responsibility. The research also offers insights for public policy formulation aimed at enhancing the legitimacy of platforms and encouraging sustainable practices
Governance and Drug Prices: An Empirical Analysis Within the European Monetary Union
No full textThis study employs a panel data analysis to explore the determinants of cocaine and heroin prices within the European Monetary Union (EMU) from 2002 to 2021. Using economic and governance indicators, our approach provides a nuanced understanding of how governance affects drug market dynamics. The main objective of this study is to investigate and provide empirical evidence for the relationship between governance performance and the pricing of illicit drugs. Additionally, the study highlights that different aspects of governance have varying effects on specific types of drugs. The empirical evidence shows that stronger governance structures are associated with higher drug prices, as higher risk leads to higher prices. Moreover, the findings reveal that the rule of law impacts drug prices in general, while corruption specifically affects heroin prices. This research provides a unique contribution by linking governance performance directly to the pricing of illicit drugs within the context of the European Monetary Union. Unlike existing studies that focus predominantly on the medical, psychological, or criminal aspects of drug use, our study emphasizes economic and governance factors influencing drug prices, offering a novel perspective for policymakers and stakeholders in the fight against drug trafficking. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first model for illicit drug pricing
Price Discovery in Carbon Markets: Evidence from Phase III & IV of EU-ETS
No full textThis paper examines the price discovery process in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) – the largest carbon market across the world – for its third and fourth commitment periods. In particular, we examine the two leading carbon exchanges: European Energy Exchange (EEX: Spot and Futures) and European Climate Exchange (ECX: Futures). We examine the information transmission process in the EU-ETS for the three pairs, namely, (I) EEX spot-EEX futures, (II) EEX futures-ECX futures, and (III) EEX spot-ECX futures. To this end, we employ all three pair-wise bivariate vector error correction models (VECM) and price discovery measures, that is, component share (CS), information share (IS), and information leadership share (ILS) measures. We show that all three-price series substantially contribute to the price discovery. Moreover, the speed of adjustment and price discovery is comparable to the developed equity markets. The ability of carbon prices to incorporate the risk-premia related to climate-risk considerably depends on the pricing efficiency of carbon – one of the major objectives of the Kyoto Protocol and EU-ETS. Thus, these results have significant implications for policymakers, regulators, and academics in the forthcoming carbon markets from emerging economies (e.g., China, India)
Gambling as a Rational Choice: When Does It Make Sense to Gamble?
No full textThis paper explores the rationality of gambling within a classical economy framework, where individuals are assumed to be risk-averse and aim to maximize their utility. Traditionally, gambling is viewed as an irrational activity, particularly for those with a concave utility function, as the expected utility from gambling is typically lower than from not gambling. However, this study introduces a novel perspective by considering the role of indivisible goods—high-value items that cannot be partially acquired. The paper argues that for individuals whose income is insufficient to purchase such goods, gambling can become a rational strategy to obtain the necessary funds in a single, albeit risky, endeavor. This rationalization of gambling contrasts with other theories like prospect theory and behavioral economics, which attribute gambling behavior to cognitive biases and psychological factors. By incorporating indivisible goods, this paper provides a new understanding of why rational individuals might choose to gamble despite their risk aversion. The findings suggest in the presence of indivisible goods, gambling may indeed be a rational choice aimed at maximizing overall utility. This has significant implications for policymakers, who must balance the need to regulate gambling with the recognition that it can be a rational economic decision under certain circumstances
Do Sportsbooks Accurately Price Money Line Odds?
No full textEmploying a unique NFL gambling dataset that includes both spread and money line data, we examine the disconnect in profitability between similar betting strategies across the two markets. If a naïve bettor wagered 4.50 (110 on the underdog every game he or she would, on average, lose $3.11 per game in the spread market, but lose less than 1 cent per game in the money line market. Further examination shows that a bettor could earn a 2.17% return betting the money line on the underdog if the closing spread was 7 or less and greater than 3, and 6.55% if the spread is 3 or less. As such, our results challenge the market efficiency of the NFL betting market and have important implications for sportsbooks and bettors
Duty of care of public authorities in England, liability by omission, and Article 2 of the Human Rights Act
Full text linkThe negligence of public officials, who make omissions, can lead to liability under English law under tortious principles. The courts in England have been reluctant to hold public authorities liable for breach of a duty of care and this includes the police, local Councils and hospital trusts. They are generally not liable on the grounds of omission, for breach of a duty of care and causation has, until now, has been narrowly interpreted by the courts. The duty of care has to satisfy an onerous test when there is an omission by the police and in Michael v Chief Constable of South Wales Police[2012] EWCA Civ 981 the Court of Appeal denied liability where there was prima facie negligence for a breach of duty towards a pre identified victim. The differentiation between the recognized victim and the stranger who is injured or suffers a fatality needs to be distinguished both in negligence, and under Article 2, Right to Life, in order to establish the extent of liability of public bodies. The question in this paper is whether the breach of a duty of care by public authorities is construed with more deference by the courts, and if the judges are more likely to construe liability under Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, when there is death has been caused by the negligence of the state