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The Covid-19 pandemic has induced worldwide natural experiments on the effects of crowds. We exploit one of these experiments that took place over several countries in almost identical settings: professional football matches played behind closed doors within the 2019/20 league seasons. We find large and statistically significant effects on the number of yellow cards issued by referees. Without a crowd, fewer cards were awarded to the away teams, reducing home advantage. These results have implications for the influence of social pressure and crowds on the neutrality of decisions.

The massive transition to higher education and the large number of university graduates taking school-leavers' jobs has led many to question the widely held view that a university education is a good investment and a guarantee of economic success. This paper using data from one large civic university in the UK to consider the determinants and consequences of over-education. Approximately one in five graduates genuinely have more education than their jobs require. This study tests and rejects the hypothesis of non-random selection into over-education among graduates who have been in the labour market for sometime. In addition, the evidence strongly suggests that ordinary least squares systematically underestimate the magnitude of the negative effect of overeducation on earnings.

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In the economics of education there are relatively few studies which have focused on the mechanism of human capital acquisition. That is, exactly how do people acquire knowledge and what is the relationship between the learning environment and the educational achievement of those receiving the education? The relationship between student study time allocation and examination performance is little understood and is the subject of this research paper.Education can be regarded as a production process in which a variety of individual study inputs are used to determine a multidimensional output. From the standpoint of the educational institution the way in which resources are used to transform students into well-qualified graduates is of importance. Should individual universities and the taxpayer fund longer and more time intensive courses or are the gains from the extra expenditure worthwhile? From the perspective of the individual student -how best should they allocate their time between formal study in lecture attendance, self-study and leisure and other activities?The accepted technique for modelling the process of exam performance is the educational production function. This study models the existence of a university production function based on individual student data relating to examination performance. We model the allocation of student time into formal study (lectures and classes) and self study and its relationship to university examination scores using a stochastic f rontier production function. The estimation of potential rather than an average educational production function provides an opportunity for estimating the extent of higher education inefficiency. This case study uses unique time budget data and detailed personal records from one university in Spain.Our econometric results would suggest important policy implications for the university authorities and educational planners. In addition the results may be suggestive for the individual student in their choice of study time and potentially for parents seeking to support their sons and daughters in higher education. Our results suggest:• Within the formal system of teaching in Spain, both formal study and self study are significant determinants of exam scores but that the former may be up to four times more important than the latter. Hence a student who wishes to maximise their examination score should attend all lectures and classes and minimise their absence from any formal tuition provided by the university. A logical corollary to this result is that the student should not overindulge in leisure time.• There is a clear payoff to minimizing the amount of time spent on travel and domestic activities.These results could also have implications for parents who wish to support their student sons and daughters.• Most obviously for universities the significance of formal study time on performance suggests that they should do all that is in their power to encourage student attendance at lectures and classes or even to make them compulsory university authori...