Leo H. Kahane

The Effects of Coworker Heterogeneity on Firm-Level Output: Assessing the Impacts of Cultural and Language Diversity in the National Hockey League

This paper uses data from the National Hockey League (NHL) to consider the potential gains to firms from employing culturally diverse work teams. It finds that the presence of foreign workers does increase firm-level performance: NHL teams that employed a higher proportion of European players performed better. However, the results also indicate that teams perform better when their European players come from the same country rather than being spread across many European countries. When teams have players from a wide array of European countries, integration costs associated with language and cultural differences may start to override any gains from diversity.

Team and player effects on NHL player salaries: a hierarchical linear model approach

This paper employs a hierarchical linear model (HLM) to assess the importance of both player- and team-level attributes in determining National Hockey League (NHL) player salaries. Empirical results show that there are significant differences in mean salaries and rewards to performance across teams and that these differences can be partially explained by differences in team revenues. Implications for research in other industries are considered.

The Abortion Crime Link: Evidence from England and Wales

Using data from England and Wales, we test the hypothesis that legalizing abortion reduces crime. The timing of changes in crime rates in aggregate data is generally inconsistent with this hypothesis. Using panel data on recorded crime from 1983 to 2001, we are able to replicate the negative association between abortion rates and reported crime that J. J. Donohue and S. D. Levitt found for the United States. However, this association breaks down under the scrutiny of robustness checks and is not present when we examine data on convictions broken down by age. Overall, we find no clear, consistent relationship between abortion and crime in England and Wales.

Comments on "thinking about competitive balance".

Being from Oakland, California, one would think that I would be ready to jump on the issue of competitive balance in baseball. After all, the Oakland Athletics have had one of the smallest values for revenues and payrolls in Major League Baseball (MLB) in recent years, and the migration of players from Oakland to New York has been somewhat of a way of life for Oakland fans. 1 Yet when it comes to bemoaning the ills of the perceived competitive imbalance in MLB, I am hesitant to get passionately embroiled in the discussion for two reasons. First, despite this pilfering of the Athletics’s talent and the A’s diminutive payrolls, Oakland has fielded a competitive ball club. Second, and perhaps more importantly, there seems to be no real consensus as to what competitive balance means. As a consequence, much of the discussion on the topic bogs down in arguments over which metric is preferred. The article by Sanderson and Siegfried (2003), however, provides an interesting, entertaining view of competitive balance in MLB (and other sports) as it relates the topic to such things as state lotteries, world-class symphonies, art museums, bikinis, and pornography, just to name a few. I find the article useful in the sense that it broaches a wide range of issues/hypotheses associated with competitive bal ance including the link between team market characteristics and team revenues and their effect on team performance, various institutional modifications that may alter competitive balance, whether a competitive balance problem exists in MLB, and, if it does, whether it is undesirable. Missing from their article (Sanderson & Siegfried, 2003), however, as with much of the work on competitive balance, is a workable definition of the phenome non we are trying to measure and perhaps alter. In their defense, their lack of a defi nition is understandable because the concept is difficult to pin down. 2 Indeed, even the prestigious set of authors who penned the now-famous (infamous?) Commis sioner’s Blue Ribbon Report (BRR) struggled with a definition, as they offered the

Senate voting patterns on the 1991 extension of the fast-track trade procedures: Prelude to NAFTA

In 1991 then-President George Bush requested an extension of fast-track procedures from Congress for the primary purpose of negotiating a North American Free Trade Agreement. This paper uses an econometric model to test the importance of three themes related to NAFTA that surfaced during Senate debates over whether to approve the request, that of employment effects, environmental effects and the impact on immigration from Mexico. The empirical results show that expected job gains and losses were significant in explaining Senate voting patterns on fast-track extension. Immigration was found to be somewhat important, but environmental issues were not found to statistically significant. In addition, the impact of organized labor and political ideology as proxied by political party were found to be important factors that shaped Senate voting patterns on fast-track.

Gun lobbies and gun control: Senate voting patterns on the Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban

This paper uses an econometric model to analyze the political and economic factors affecting the Senate voting patterns on the 1993 Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban. Results of a logit estimation procedure support the hypothesis that the political activities and presence of the National Rifle Association (measured as relative campaign contributions and membership) had a significant impact on the voting patterns by Senators on both bills.

Introducing a New Journal

versation between professors Leo Kahane, Steve Shmanske, and Paul Staudohar (all from California State University, Hayward). Following this conversation, Staudohar sought the counsel of Roger Noll (Stanford University), one of the most prominent persons in the field of sports economics. Noll favored the idea and agreed to serve on the board of editors. Todd Idson (Columbia University) was contacted and invited to join Kahane as coeditor of JSE. Staudohar, Kahane, and Idson began the process of securing the agreement of other key academics in the field to serve on the board. This effort resulted in (if we may) an all-star lineup of editorial board members. Kahane and Idson worked together on establishing the structure and policies for JSE, and after careful consideration, Sage Publications was selected as the publisher. Meanwhile, we learned that a similar journal was being organized by Paul Downward and Brian Davies at Staffordshire University in England. Both journals had contacted some of the same editorial board members, so it was logical to combine operations into one journal. This joining of forces produced a stronger international board of editors than would otherwise have been the case. The international

Returns to thuggery in the National Hockey League: the effects of increased enforcement

The study of sport in the economy presents a rich arena for the application of sharply focused microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics to both team and individual outcomes. This unique book offers a survey of recent research that follows the tradition of empirical and theoretical analysis of sport economics and econometrics.

Editorial Board Changes

t the January 2015 annual meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) in San Diego, California, a number of Achanges to the Editorial Board took effect during the handover of the Editorship from Dr L. Henry Edmunds, Jr, to Dr G. Alexander Patterson. The following individuals rotated off after completing multiple terms of distinguished service to The Annals: Deputy Editors Drs Verdi J. DiSesa, Constantine Mavroudis, and John A. Odell; Associate Editors Drs Gary L. Grunkemeier, Richard Lee, Joseph I. Miller, Jr, and Norman J. Snow; and Editorial Board Members Drs Marshall L. Jacobs, Michael E. Jessen, James K. Kirklin, R. Scott Mitchell, and Gaetano Rocco. Drs DiSesa and Mavroudis served in multiple capacities during their tenure, first as Editorial Board Members, then as CME Associate Editors, before assuming Deputy Editor duties. Dr Odell began as an Associate Editor for feature articles before becoming a Deputy Editor. The hard work and long service that all of the departing individuals have dedicated to our field are appreciated not only by The Annals, but also by the larger cardiothoracic community. Their expertise has helped ensure the quality of our peer-review process and publications, which positively affects our readership and, ultimately, our patients. We thank them for their service and commitment.