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This study investigates three issues associated with playing sports video games: the correlates of participation (and its intensity) in this type of activity, their complementarity with traditional sports and their perception as sport. Given the scarcity of data on esports participation, these results can be seen as an initial approach to these issues with regard to esports.

Sequential, two-part and regression models are estimated using a sample of 11,018 individuals from the Survey of Sporting Habits in Spain 2015.

First, the association of the correlates follows different patterns for participation in sports video games and its intensity. Second, complementarity with traditional sports is found using different approaches. Third, young people consider this activity as a dimension of their overall interest in sports.

The different association of the correlates with participation in esports and its intensity can be used to define marketing and brand investment strategies. The complementarity between esports and traditional sports should influence how the actual stakeholders in sport define future strategies to favour the growth of both industries. Finally, the increasing perception of esports as a sport should influence the future organisation of multi-sport events like the Olympic Games.

Using sports video games participation as a proxy of esports participation, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the relevance of distinguishing between participation in esports and its intensity, their complementarity with traditional sports and their perception as sport.

The purpose of this research is to analyse the dimensionality of the concept of perceived value in the banking sector, adapting the GLOVAL scale of measurement of perceived value to the banking services sector.

A total of 200 customers of financial entities were surveyed, and structural equations models were used to verify the reliability and validity of the scale of perceived value.

Perceived value is found to be a multidimensional construct composed of six dimensions: functional value of the establishment, functional value of the personnel; functional value of the service; functional value price; emotional value; and social value. A scale of overall perceived value in financial services was obtained, composed of six dimensions and represented by 22 items that are significant for their measurement.

In future studies it would be interesting to include items to measure non‐monetary sacrifices, such as waiting times, queues, etc.

A tool for measuring the value of financial entities as perceived by the customer is presented; with it the value perceived by customers can be quantified, evaluated and monitored.

This study proposes a scale of measurement of the value perceived by consumers in the banking sector which incorporates valuations of functional aspects and of affective aspects, thus obtaining an overall quantification of the value perceived by the customer of the purchase made.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain evidence about the scope of the determinants of the willingness to pay (WTP) of the residents in a Spanish city (A Coruña) for keeping a professional football team (Deportivo) competing at the highest level. Apart from the individual socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and their attitudes as football fans, the authors try to know the influence on the WTP of factors such as the general economic conditions and the plausibility of the team disappearance.

The value of the intangible benefits associated with the team existence is derived from the application of the contingent valuation method (CVM), using two surveys conducted in 2003 and 2012, respectively, with the aim of obtaining information concerning citizens’ behaviour and attitudes towards a professional football team.

The consumption of public goods generated by the local football team is relatively inelastic to the sport success and general economic situation, but the value assigned by residents to those goods depends on these factors. Of the two components of the WTP, the non-use value is especially sensitive to changes both in the Spanish economic conditions and in the quality of the public goods generated by the football team.

This is the first study that applies the CVM to a football team controlling for both the general economic conditions and the team sport success and, as such, it provides interesting insights into the nature and scope of the determinants of individuals’ WTP in a CVM setting.

This paper empirically examines the inequalities related to social class and income using individual self‐reported health status data. Health inequalities are estimated by different indexes using individual standardised and unstandardised health status data. The population was divided into income and social class, respectively. From this two main results are obtatined: inequalities are sensitive to the health status variable and the social position variable employed. It was found that significant health related social class inequalities were insignificant when income was employed as a reference variable.

This paper examines the associations between obesity, employment status and wages for several European countries. Our results provide weak evidence that obese workers are more likely to be unemployed or tend to be more segregated in self-employment jobs than their non-obese counterparts. We also find difficult to detect statistically significant relationships between obesity and wages. As previously reported in the literature, the associations between obesity, unemployment and wages seem to be different for men and women. Moreover, heterogeneity is also found across countries. Such heterogeneity can be somewhat explained by some labor market institutions, such as collective bargaining coverage and employer-provided health insurance.

Five papers in the volume use economic models to predict obesity and related behaviours. Two of the papers are theoretical. Liqun Liu, Andrew J. Rettenmaier, and Thomas R. Saving analyse the importance of food quality for bodyweight. Bodyweight is treated as a variable of choice – the individual derives utility from health, food consumption and consumption of a composite good. Bodyweight is assumed to decrease health whenever it differs from its physiologically optimal level. Their model implies that much of further income growth will be used to improve food quality rather than increase caloric intake.

This paper, a pioneering one in the Israeli context, aims to augment the research literature on school quality and housing prices by examining the effect of primary-school performance on local property values. It focuses on the main question whether the release of students’ test scores offered households a new source of information with which they could evaluate the quality of schools, thereby affecting local housing markets.

Several models that examine a variety of transactions, schools and locality characteristics that affect house prices are estimated. Using different administrative sources of information, a wide array of socioeconomic characteristics of students, parents and homebuyers, as well as locality features, is constructed and merged. This information, combined with students’ scores on Meitzav exams (standardized student achievement tests) in 2009-2012 and house prices, illuminates the relationship between student achievements and the prices of houses purchased within the defined attendance zones.

Student achievements, mainly in the state education system, are found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on housing prices. Accurate information published about a certain school that showed much stronger achievements than those yielded by information attainable about the same school before school-level publication, does contribute to boost house prices in the post-publication period. The socioeconomic background of the students’ parents was found to have a significant effect on house prices. The premium for housing value is much higher in the most prestigious, prime demand districts, in which the housing supply is limited and the housing price level is higher than in that the peripheral districts.

This study not only breaks new ground in the Israeli context but also contributes to the existing literature, by investigating the relation between publishing students’ scores and property values near the same schools, on a national scale. Given that the housing price dynamics and the spatial differentiation of housing stock are extremely hot issues in many European cities, the results of this study could serve as an important tool for better understanding the housing price responses to market incentives, resulting in specific patterns in local housing markets. This paper could be thus applicable in housing policy outline, urban design and planning.

This chapter deals with the development of banking in the Crown of Aragon from the end of the thirteenth century through the establishment of money changers, which followed similar patterns as in other Western European territories. It starts with a review of existing literature and follows with an explanation on the different banking services provided by money changers and the specific legal framework that supported such activities. It then examines the geographical distribution of private banks in cities and towns within the domains of the kings of Aragon, as well as their evolution throughout the fourteenth century. After that, it offers an analysis of the most common professional profiles among these bankers and financers. Finally, drawing on a heterogeneous pool of unpublished data, it seeks to shed light on the diversity of investors and clients of these establishments, a crucial proof of their role in integrated financial markets.