This study reports the findings of Granger causality tests on the relationship between FDI and pollution across 112 countries over 15-28 years. Our results uncover alternative causality relationships between the two variables depending on a host country's level of development. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper reports regression results identifying the variables influencing a country's performance in international soccer games. The results reveal that economic, demographic, cultural and climatic factors are important. In particular, inverted U-shape relationships are identified with respect to temperature and per-capita wealth. We also find a significant interaction between Latin cultural origin and population size, while both variables are individually insignificant. Explanations for our results are offered. JEL classification codes: L83, H50

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The paper reports the results of regressions testing hypotheses concerning the medalwinning success of Olympic teams. It is found that while traditional economic and political factors are important, many inherent national characteristics such as geographical, demographic and cultural factors have a significant and pronounced impact. It is concluded that scope for public sports policy exists and the degree to which the inherent characteristics limit it are discussed.

A number of authors have identified the determinants of international sporting performance differentials in men's sporting events. This study compares the determinants of men's international soccer team performance with that of their female counterparts and find that a partially different set of variables are important in the two contexts. While economic and demographic influences hold for both, their particular political and cultural factors diverge. These findings highlight different degrees of gender inequality among the countries in the sample in terms of the greatly different economic, political and social significance of the sport depending whether it is played by men or women.