Dennis Thomas

Professor of Economics
Photograph of Dennis Thomas.

Contact

Email: det@aber.ac.uk
Office: Room F5, Cledwyn Building
Phone: +44 (0)1970 62 8780

Biography

A native of Llanelli, and a fervent Scarlets rugby union supporter, Dennis Thomas graduated in Economics from Aberystwyth University. Following postgraduate study at Cardiff University he returned to Aberystwyth first as a Tutor and then Lecturer in Economics. His current lecturing commitments cover Oligopoly and Game Theory, Uncertainty and Asymmetric Information, Economics of the Firm, and Industrial Organisation and Policy.

His long standing research interest in the economic history of Wales and its modern economic development has generated considerable research output, and has been recognised in several ways including an invitation to present a lecture to The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion at the British Academy and his period as co-editor of the Contemporary Wales journal, as well as involvement in several externally funded projects. His interest in local and regional issues has recently seen an increasing focus on entrepreneurship development, while another related strand involves the investigation of the post-privatisation experiences of the Welsh water utility sector and its transformation from its part within the Hyder multi-utility enterprise into the revolutionary form of the Glas Cymru operation. Until recently he was Director of the Research Centre in Local and Regional Enterprise.

Dennis has also researched extensively on the economics of professional team sports. In addition to his many journal articles variously investigating the determinants of attendance demand, the home-field effect, transfer markets, and production and efficiency aspects, he has recently contributed a chapter on the players ‘retain and transfer’ system in association football to the Handbook of Sports Economics, and one on competitive balance in European football to a forthcoming book on The Economics of Sports Leagues, with another on team production functions to be published in the Handbook on The Economics of Professional Football. Several journal articles have been reprinted in edited volumes, including The Economics of Association Football, The Economics of Sport and Recent Developments in the Economics of Sport.

Apart from his continuing work on the economics of sport and entrepreneurship his diverse research interests currently sees him collaborating with both internal and external colleagues in the study of organisational structure and decision-making in not-for-profit heritage organisations, corporate governance, regional house price variations, and regional policy making.

Staff Publications

Recent Publications

  • Risk and Structual Instability in US House Prices, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, (forthcoming) (with M. Karoglou and B. Morley)
  • Competitive Balance in European Football in the Post - Bosman Era, in Lenten, L. (Ed) 'The Economics of Sports Leagues.' An International Perspective, Edward Elgar: London (forthcoming) (with F. Carmichael)
  • Public Sector Size and Peripherality, Spatial Economic Analysis, Vol.7, No.4, 2012 (Pp447-460) (with R.F. James and P. Midmore).
  • Voluntary Corporate Governance Disclosure by Post-Apartheid South African Corporations, The Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Vol.13, No.2, 2012 (Pp122-144) (with C. Ntim, J. Danbolt and K. Opong)
  • Maintaining Market Position: Team Performance, Revenue and Wage Expenditure in the Premier League, Bulletin of Economic Research, Vol. 63, No. 4, 2011 (Pp 464-497) (with F. Carmichael and I. McHale).
  • Risk - Return Relationships and Asymmetric Adjustment in the UK Housing Market, Applied Financial Economics, Vol. 21, No. 10, 2011 (Pp 735-742) (with B. Morley)
  • Accounting as the 'Language' of Organizational Change'. The Case of a Heritage Railway, International Journal of Critical Accounting, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2011 (Pp 26-62) (with K.Jayasinghe and T. Soobaroyen)
  • The Preservation of Indigenous Accounting Systems in a Subaltern Community, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 22, No.3, 2009 (Pp 351-378)  (with K.Jayasinghe)
  • An Examination of Match Outcomes in Day-Night Limited Overs Cricket, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 60, No. 12, 2009 (Pp 1786-1793) (with P. Dawson, B. Morley and D. Paton)
  • Training Female Entrepreneurs.  The FE-IW Project.  International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Vol.1, No.3, 2009. (Pp 253-260) (with M Tynan, M Durand, B O'Gorman and N. Fuller-love)
  • Bounded Emotionality in Entrepreneurship: An Alternative Framework, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 1. 14, No. 4, 2008 (Pp 242-258) (with K. Jayasinghe and D. Wickramasinghe)
  • Bounded Emotionality in Entrepreneurial Calculations: A Case Study in Rural Sri Lanka, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2008 (Pp 622-643). (with K Jayasinghe)
  • Efficiency in Knock-out Tournaments: Evidence from Euro 2004, European Sport Management Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2008 (Pp 211-228), (with F. Carmichael). Reprinted in W Andreff (ed.) Recent Developments in the Economics of Sport, (The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics),  Edward Elgar, London. 2011
  • Attendance Demand and Core Support: Evidence from Limited-Overs Cricket, Applied Economics, Vol. 39, No. 16, 2007 (Pp 2085-2097) (with B Morley).
  • Habit, Aggregation and Long Memory: Evidence from Television Audience Data, Applied Economics, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2007. (Pp. 321-327) (with J D Byers and D A Peel)
  • The Retain and Transfer System. (Pp. 630-635) Ch. 67 in Andreff, W and Szymanski, S. (Eds.) Handbook of Sports Economics, Edward Elgar, London. 2006.
  • Regional Self-reliance and Economic Development: The Case of Pembrokeshire, Local Economy, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2006 (Pp. 391-408) (with P Midmore)
  • Entrepreneurship and Rural Economic Development: A Scenario Analysis Approach, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 12, No. 5, 2006. (Pp. 289-305). (with N Fuller-Love, A Henley and P Midmore)
  • Scenario Analysis and Regional Economic Development: The Case of Mid Wales, European Urban and Regional Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2006 (Pp. 143-149) (with N Fuller-Love, A Henley and P Midmore)
  • Home-Field Effect and Team Performance: Evidence from English Premiership Football, Journal of Sports Economics, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2005 (Pp. 264-281) (with F. Carmichael)
  • An Investigation of Home Advantage and Other Factors Affecting Outcomes in English One-Day Cricket Matches, Journal of Sports Sciences, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2005 (Pp. 261-268) (with B.Morley)