Does the crowd matter in refereeing decisions? Evidence from Spanish soccer

This paper analyses referee home bias with data from the First Division of the Spanish Football League between the 2002/03 and 2009/10 seasons. The aim is to assess the behaviour of the referee in relation to two decisions, namely free kicks awarded and players booked. The main contribution of this paper is the way in which it analyses referee bias; free kicks and bookings are not considered independent elements, instead it is presumed that the number of free kicks awarded has an impact on the cards shown. Regarding methodology, two random effects panel-data regression models are estimated. The results obtained do not confirm, at least in the period under analysis, that Spanish soccer refer…

Valuing water supply infrastructure improvements using life satisfaction data as a complement to contingent valuation

WHY DO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS PRIVATIZE THE PROVISION OF WATER SERVICES? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SPAIN

Why do some local governments privatize water services, while others opt for public management? Economic literature has been unable to demonstrate that private management is more efficient than public management, so there must be other reasons that lead governments to privatize the service. But what are they? This paper presents the results of a study that analyses the factors behind the privatization of water services with data from 741 municipalities located in the South of Spain over a period dating from 1985 to 2006. A discrete choice model analyses the influence of each factor on the likelihood of privatization. One of the novelties of this paper is that we take the value of the explan…

Willingness to pay to improve urban water supply: the case of Sucre, Bolivia

In this study the contingent valuation method is applied in order to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of the inhabitants of Sucre (Bolivia) for an improvement in the urban water supply system. The study finds that about 55 per cent of households would be willing to pay an increase in their water bill for an improvement in the service. In order to deal with the problem of protest responses and the possible presence of a sample selection bias, a Heckman two-step model was estimated. More specifically, the econometric analysis undertaken reveals that there is no evidence of sample selection bias and that WTP positively relates to the respondents' household income, their level of education…