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This study examines a sharp decline of school attendance among white children in the Southern US after the Civil War. According to Census data, the school-attendance rate among whites in the Confederate states declined by almost half from 1860 to 1870, whereas the rate in Northern states was approximately stable. This shock left the South approximately three decades behind its antebellum trend. We account for little of this drop with household variables plausibly affected by the War. However, a select few county-level variables (notably the drop in wealth) explains around half of the decline, which suggests a systemic explanation. We adopt a model-based approach to decomposing the decline in schooling into demand versus supply factors. On the supply side, the region saw a decline in wealth and public resources, but we observe a stable relationship between time in school and literacy or adult occupation, which is not consistent with a contracting constraint on school quantity or quality. Nevertheless, further research is required to determine how much the contraction in school access affected attendance. On the demand-side, we present suggestive evidence of a decline in the return to school (measured by the relative wage of engineers to laborers). Relatedly, we see a “brain drain”: in longitudinally linked census samples, educated Southerners were more likely to migrate out of the South after the War.

Purpose – We examine trends in religious attendance by educational group, with an emphasis on the “moderately educated”: individuals with a high school degree but not a four-year college degree.

Methodology – We conduct multivariate ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression models using data from the General Social Survey (from 1972 to 2010) and the National Survey of Family Growth (from 1982 to 2008).

Findings – We find that religious attendance among moderately educated whites has declined relative to attendance among college-educated whites. Economic characteristics, current and past family characteristics, and attitudes toward premarital sex, each explain part of this differential decline.

Implications – Religion is becoming increasingly deinstitutionalized among whites with moderate levels of education, which suggests further social marginalization of this group. Furthermore, trends in the labor force, American family life, and attitudes appear to have salient ramifications for organized religion. Sociologists of religion need to once again attend to social stratification in religious life.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether variations in factors such as start time, duration of event, and day of presentation might lead to improved attendance at performing arts events in the USA.

The research was conducted using a quantitative strategy. The approach consisted of a survey design that explored preference data for respondents. The data were examined to look for emergent themes in both raw data and cross-tabulations. The data collection also included survey questions for conjoint analysis, a form of regression analysis that compares consumer trade-offs for various levels of different attributes.

The researchers found that while anecdotal evidence regarding performing arts attendance largely holds up, there is room to explore the possibility that modern-day consumers require events of shorter duration, and that the utility of Saturday attendance is so overwhelming that start time preference can be manipulated within the Saturday level of that attribute with minimal effect on overall utility.

The study begins to fill a gap in the literature regarding attendance preference for the performing arts regarding several attributes. The study opens a discussion on how to address declining attendance figures by considering some of the factors that are likely contributing to the decline.

The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) experienced a rapid decline in attendance after the mid 1990s. In this study, market demand analysis is used to discover the causes of variation in CPBL attendance from 1990 to 2008. The ordinary least squares (OLS) is employed for model estimation. From this model, empirical evidence reveals that a homogenous sport substitute, Taiwan Major League (TML), the Major League Baseball (MLB) effect and game-fixing scandals in CPBL negatively influence CPBL attendance. Additionally, real income is found to negatively affect CPBL attendance, making CPBL games an inferior product. The proposed model accounts for approximately 91% of variation in CPBL attendance between 1990 and 2008.

This paper examines the impact of the national sports lottery (toto) in 2001 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup for the Japan Professional Soccer League - J. League. In 2001 J. League attendances grew dramatically and were sustained in subsequent years, even though member clubs did not change many of their marketing strategies and chose to maintain a distance from toto. The evidence suggests that hosting the World Cup allowed the league to leverage the country's hosting of the event in order to generate long-term interest and attendance at J. League games. By contrast, toto appears to have had a short-term impact.

Church giving and attendance are two important indicators of church health and performance. In the literature, they are usually understood to be simultaneously determined. The purpose of this paper is to estimate if there a sustainable church congregation size using Wintrobe’s (1998) dictatorship model. The authors want to examine the impact of youth and adult ministry as well.

Using the data collected from among Canadian Baptist churches in Eastern Canada, this study investigates the factors affecting the level of the two indicators by the panel-instrumental variable technique. Applying Wintrobe’s (1998) political economy model on dictatorship, the equilibrium level of worship attendance and giving is predicted.

Through various simulation exercises, the actual church congregation sizes is approximately 50 percent of the predicted value, implying inefficiency and misallocation of church resources. The paper concludes with insights on effective ways church leaders can allocate scarce resources to promote growth within churches.

The authors are the only researchers getting the permission from the Atlantic Canada Baptist Convention to use their mega data set on church giving and congregation sizes as per the authors’ knowledge. The authors are also applying a theoretical model on dictatorship to religious/not for profits organizations.

Since the appearance of Simon Rottenberg's seminal paper on the baseball players' labour market in the Journal of Political Economy (1956), the literature on the economics of professional team sports has increased rapidly, fuelled by major changes in the restrictive rules which had pervaded these sports, themselves a consequence of battles in the courts and the collective bargaining arena. These changes have not been limited to North America, to which most of the literature relates, but also apply to Western Europe and Australia in particular. This monograph surveys this literature covering those various parts of the world in order to draw out both theoretical and empirical aspects. However, to argue that the existence of what is now an extensive literature “justifies” such a survey on professional team sports clearly begs a number of questions. Justification can be found in at least two major aspects.

This case study was undertaken as a process consultation in a non‐profit Christian church which has experienced a general decline in attendance in addition to a particular problem characterized as a habit of late arrival at the primary Sunday worship service. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This case study was designed as an action research project using appreciative inquiry and institutional theory in the structuralist tradition. This combined methodological approach was effectively used to identify core values and norms inherent in the organization and functioning of the church.

Results confirmed the premise of a habit of late arrival and indicated that there was little focus or support by congregants on the traditions and practices that occur early in the church service. Great value was placed on the overall environment, teaching and messaging that occurred from the sermons which begin approximately 45 minutes after the start of the service. Validation and review of the possibility propositions resulted in a reorganization of the primary Sunday worship service resulting in increased attendance and on time performance.

This case study finds that methods inherent in institutional analysis and appreciative inquiry can be effectively combined to identify gaps in organizational goals and performance which are direct results of encapsulated organizational traditions. It is anticipated that the methodological approach in this study is generally applicable to organizations of various types.

This organizational climate empirical case study involves a religious organization in the United States of America, which has experienced a substantial decline in membership and weekly service participation numbers over the previous five years. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to reveal motivating factors that drive parishioners to leave or stay within a traditional protestant congregation and to uncover the strengths and weaknesses within the organization.

The methodology behind the study considers personal observation by the author and engages current and former members of the organization as well as front-line employees and senior leadership. Qualitative essays were completed through Qualtrics by participants and analyzed with the use of MAXQDA software for thematic frequency and organization.

During analysis, correlations were found to exist between the church's membership decline and ineffectiveness of senior leadership. Also, it is quite evident that the church's strengths were found in the quality of its members and the relationships they developed. This was found to be a significant motivation to stay within the organization.

The study provides value to practitioners within organizational development fields. Usage of this knowledge could assist in providing insights into possible reasons why religious organizations falter under ineffective leadership, which in turn could provide opportunities to implement improvements based on discoveries.

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of “flipping the classroom” on student performance, evaluation, and attendance in managerial accounting principles.

The study uses a crossed within-participants research design (each student experiencing both traditional instruction and simplified flipped instruction) allowing for control of individual differences between students; repeated-measures regression analysis for overall effects; quantile regression for performance-segregated effects.

Flipping the classroom resulted in significant performance improvement, particularly for lower performing students. Course evaluations indicate a few instructor-related ratings were lower for the flipped approach. Attendance was lower under the flipped approach for initial class meetings where the instructional manipulation occurred.

The study design included a weak form of flipping. A stronger form of flipping with greater incentives for class preparation as well as lecture videos could have stronger results.

Flipping the classroom could be effective for application-oriented accounting courses, particularly for lower performing students.

This is one of very few studies on flipping providing evidence of effectiveness using a crossed within-participants research design.