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Lera López, Fernando

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Lera López

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Fernando

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Economía

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0000-0002-9230-9405

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1903

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2016 - 20172
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Author: Downward, Paul ×

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Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Does government spending help to promote healthy behavior in the population? Evidence from 27 European countries
    (Oxford University Press, 2016) Lera López, Fernando; Wicker, Pamela; Downward, Paul; Economía; Ekonomia
    Background: The aim of this study was to examine if government spending is associated with an individual's decision to participate in physical activity and sport which is regarded as healthy behavior given the positive health effects documented in previous research. Methods: Individual-level data (n = 25 243) containing socio-demographic information are combined with national-level data on government spending (5-year average) in 27 European countries. Given the hierarchical data structure, i.e. individuals are nested within countries; multi-level analyses are applied. Results: The multi-level models show that it is mainly education spending that has a significant positive association with participation in sport of various regularities. Health spending has some association with participation in other physical activity and sport of a lower regularity. Conclusions: While health spending can be considered a relevant policy tool for increasing sport participation rates, education spending is required more since the effects are larger and it affects both physical activity and sport. This suggests that health spending will have most effect combined with earlier influences from education spending.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Does regional disadvantage affect health-related sport and physical activity level? A multi-level analysis of individual behaviour
    (Routledge, 2017) Wicker, Pamela; Downward, Paul; Lera López, Fernando; Economía; Ekonomia
    This study examines the role of regional government quality in health-related participation in sport and physical activity among adults (18–64 years) in 28 European countries. The importance of the analysis rests in the relative autonomy that regional and local governments have over policy decisions connected with sport and physical activity. While existing studies have focussed on economic and infrastructural investment and expenditure, this research investigates the quality of regional governments across 208 regions within 28 European countries. The individual-level data stem from the 2013 Eurobarometer 80.2 (n = 18,675) and were combined with regional-level data from Eurostat. An individual's level of participation in sport and physical activity was measured by three variables reflecting whether an individual's activity level is below, meets, or exceeds the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The results of multi-level analyses reveal that regional government quality has a significant and positive association with individual participation in sport and physical activity at a level meeting or exceeding the guidelines. The impact is much larger than that of regional gross domestic product per capita, indicating that regional disadvantage in terms of political quality is more relevant than being disadvantaged in terms of economic wealth.