Centre for Policy Studies - Working Papers
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Item Scheduling slots and sports league objectives: an empirical analysis of the Australian football league(Centre for Policy Studies, University College Cork, 2010-01) Jakee, Keith; Kenneally, MartinWe concentrate on the redistributional aspects of sports league decisions by analyzing the allocation of scheduling slots in the Australian Football League. We model and empirically test a number of team variables that we hypothesize are likely to influence the league’s allocation of scheduling slots to teams. We frame each of these variables in terms of its likelihood of contributing to either competitive balance or "infant industry" objectives versus its likelihood of contributing to increased gate attendance and television viewership (viz profit) objectives. We found no evidence that the league’s distributional choices were consistent with competitive balance-infant industry goals. Rather, our results suggest that the league is pursuing a policy of profit maximization.Item Medical cards, the 'over 70s' and all that... ...out of the frying pan?(Centre for Policy Studies, University College Cork, 2009-08) Kenneally, MartinThe government removed the ‘automatic’ entitlement to a medical card for persons reaching age 70 on 1 January 2009. Since then, persons aged ‘over 70’ must satisfy a means test to receive a medical card. This policy has imposed extra GP and pharmacy costs on those elderly who lost their medical cards far greater than the financial savings the HSE achieved by it, which implies that the policy is inefficient. The same level of GP and pharmacy services can be delivered at lower cost both to those who lost their medical cards and to the HSE. I sketch an alternative efficient policy that provides the elderly with greater financial protection for the medical risks they face and that may encourage them to avail of preventative medical services and thereby mitigate longer term medical costs.Item Competition and cooperation in liner shipping(Centre for Policy Studies, University College Cork, 2009-12) Sjostrom, WilliamLiner shipping is the business of offering common carrier ocean shipping services in international trade. Since it became an important industry in the 1870s, it has been characterized by various agreements between firms. Historically, since the formation in 1875 of the Calcutta Conference, the conference system was the primary form of agreement in liner shipping. Variously called liner conferences, shipping conferences, and ocean shipping conferences, they are formal agreements between liner shipping lines on a route, always setting (possibly discriminatory) prices, and sometimes pooling profits or revenues, managing capacity, allocating routes, and offering loyalty discounts. Conferences agreements were quite successful and in many cases have lasted for years. In the last two decades, conferences have begun to be supplanted by alliances (particularly in the American and European trades, where legislative changes have been unfavourable to them), which are less complete (they do not, for example, set prices) but encompass more broadly defined trade routes.Item The North American coach tourist to Ireland: a factor analysis approach(Centre for Policy Studies, University College Cork, 2010-01) Ryan, Marie; Deegan, Jim; Irish Hotels FederationThe objective of this paper is to identify the most significant travel behaviours and characteristics of North American coach tourists visiting Ireland. The data, identifying travel behaviours and characteristics, such as travel constraints, motivation, activities, accommodation attributes, life focus and personality traits was elucidated from questionnaires (n = 741) distributed to North American coach tourists that visited Ireland between June 2007 and March 2008. Factor analysis, which is a statistical technique that uses correlations between variables to determine the underlying dimensions represented by the variables, is used to identify the most significant factors that have common characteristics amongst the tourists. Results show, over 59% of the coach tourists surveyed are under 65 years. Coach tourists are largely active individuals with a strong propensity for cycling. They tend to be culturally aware and are drawn to historical destinations. They have a desire to learn new things. Fear of terrorism is their main travel constraint. They focus on sharing their beliefs with others. Finally, those surveyed tend to be independent and family orientated. These findings suggest tourism policies can now be directed more succinctly to cater for a specific type of coach tourist visiting Ireland rather than supplying a generic tourist product. The findings also help target future niche markets of coach tourism by suggesting eight coach tour niches worthy of further research. The active coach tourist: the spa retreat tours: the spiritual tourist: the historical coach tours: the health conscious coach tourist: the adult-only coach tourist: the family orientated coach tourist and the luxurious coach tourist.