In Germany, gambling research has primarily focused on the broader population in prevalence studies, neglecting the importance and influence of the local socioeconomic context in the development and maintenance of gambling disorders. To analyze the interplay between contextual and compositional factors in the market for electronic gambling machines (EGMs) in Germany, we assessed the EGM densities and socioeconomic deprivation in 244 local communities within Baden-Wuerttemberg. Our results suggest that EGM density is statistically associated with 3 socioeconomic determinants: The shares of migrants, unemployed, and high-school-educated people in the communities are statistically significant variables in our linear regression model, whereas younger age, male gender, and marital status exhibit no statistical associations with EGM density. The share of unemployed people is the only variable of statistical and practical significance. Our analysis advocates area-based policy measures to minimize gambling-related harm. By decreasing EGM densities in communities with high levels of unemployment, we expect to protect at-risk population strata that are most vulnerable to gambling exposure.

The surgical castration of male piglets as a routine procedure in modern pig production is facing increasing societal criticism. Pork production with boars and immunocastrates are available alternatives, but both have low market shares as it is so far uncertain how the carcass characteristics and primal pork cuts of boars and immunocastrates will be estimated in comparison to barrows and gilts. This article therefore evaluates the impact of sex group (gilts, boars, immunocastrates and barrows) on carcass characteristics and primal pork cuts using AutoFOM III data from a commercial abattoir. In our study, weekly slaughter data from a total of n = 36,994 pigs between 2018 and 2019 were analyzed. The results show that gilts had the highest amount of pork per carcass of all sex groups, whereas non-significant differences between boars, immunocastrates and barrows could be observed. Boars had the highest lean meat content, followed by gilts, immunocastrates and finally barrows with the lowest lean meat content. These results suggest that both immunocastration and pork production with boars are sustainable techniques that can replace pork production with barrows without affecting carcass quality.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the consumers’ perception of natural and artificial food colourants. Furthermore, attitudes towards the application of carmine, being technically important and ubiquitously used to impart red shades, are assessed and analysed. Originating from insects, carmine is considered as natural but may arouse disgust. Design/methodology/approach In total, 625 individuals were surveyed using an online, self-administered questionnaire to represent a broad cross-section of the German population. Findings Independent of their origin, the application of colourants was rejected by 57.0 per cent of the interviewees. In total, 31.8 per cent of the participants stated a neutral attitude, while only 11.2 per cent expressed a positive notion. Most respondents preferred colourants from natural sources to artificial ones. While consumers perceive natural food colourants composed of genuine plant pigments positively, 61.6 per cent of respondents disliked the application of animal-derived colourants, 24.8 per cent of them did neither reject nor like it, and only 13.6 per cent of the interviewees stated a positive attitude towards them. The findings of this paper further indicate consumers’ preference for colourants to be either artificial or plant-derived rather than carmine. Food colourants are being rejected, possibly due to misleading information and confusing labelling. Consequently, information about carmine, including its origin and production, did not increase the aversion to products that are dyed with it, but increased their acceptance. Originality/value This study outlines consumer perception and attitudes towards food colourants. For the first time, the findings of this paper report the effect of revealing information about an additive, which initially aroused disgust, and its influence on consumer perception.

This article studies whether immigration in voter’s neighborhoods is a driving factor of the rise of Germany’s major right-wing party Alternative fuer Deutschland (AFD) and the decline of Angela Merkel’s center ruling party the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). We use the 2015 refugee crisis as a natural experiment to study the short-run impact of refugee presence on the voting behavior in German municipalities. This is the first study to use a spatial econometric framework combining small-scale immigration data, election data, and a set of socioeconomic factors. Our main finding states that the local immigration boosted AFD votes but did not affect CDU votes directly. Instead, in regions that perceived immigration indirectly, that is in neighboring municipalities, the CDU gained fewer votes.

There are sizeable differences in the Electronic Gambling Machine (EGM) supply among German regions. Furthermore, the EGM supply concentrates in certain regions which results in gambling hot spots. Interestingly the spatial clustering of EGM supply is still observed when we control for agglomeration effects caused by population. This leads to the question why the EGM supply concentrates in some regions and remains low in others. We argue that the concentration of supply can be mostly explained by the socioeconomic characteristics of these regions. This paper makes three central contributions to the location based gambling research. First, it visualizes the absolute and relative supply of EGMs in German communities and highlights the spatial clustering of high and low EGM density regions. Second, it implements socioeconomic and geographical control variables for a more distinct description of regional differences. Third, it employs spatial econometric modelling to quantify and explain the occurrence of EGM hot spots. For our analysis we use census and EGM market data. The main finding implies, that there is a clear clustering of the EGM supply across regions at first, but when considering the socioeconomic characteristics / deprivation of the regions, most of the clustering effect is erased. The model explains most of the clustering effect which appears to exist only when there is no slender consideration of the socioeconomic differences across regions. This result supports the hypothesis that high gambling activity in one region does not affect the gambling activity in neighboring regions.