The study examines the determinants of rapes in India using state-level data for the time period 2001-2015. The panel model analysis indicates that there is no impact of education and economic growth, pointing towards a larger role of social and cultural factors in this context. The effect of deterrence variables (such as, the number of police stations) is non-existent, indicating possibly towards the incompetency of the police force. Social attitude towards women emerged as the most robust predictor of the extent of rapes in India. We argue that the fundamental problem lies in the misogyny deep-rooted in the Indian society.

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One of the recent developments in comprehending the effects and complexities of environmental regulations are by building environmental models. These models play various functional roles in environmental regulations ranging from assisting in policy making, in formulating new laws and resolving legal disputes to being used as a tool for collaborative negotiations between multiple set of parties. One such methodology for developing models in the context of environmental regulations is the economic analysis of law (EAL). This paper looks into how the EAL could be used in formulating environmental regulation models. This paper is an attempt to help policy makers, lawyers and environmental professionals, in general to understand how EAL could be used as an empirical tool to identify how regulatory quality could reduce pollution levels successfully and also how other variables (such as public participation, Ngo′s etc) could help reinforce the existing regulatory quality. In addition, to understand how this methodology can aid in devising models for examining the effectiveness of the regulatory quality, it also looks at EAL′s historical origins and how it has developed over time and its use (both advantages and disadvantages) in understanding regulation.

The popularity of fantasy sports has increased exponentially over the last few decades. The existing literature has predominantly focused on the negative effects of fantasy football (or, fantasy sports in general) on mental health because of its association with gambling and internet addictions. Using primary data collected through online surveys, this study attempts to examine the role of fantasy football within a completely new context by asking whether it acted as an effective distraction for the fantasy football managers during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 70% of the participants consider fantasy football to be an effective escape from day-to-day activities. Approximately two-thirds of the managers in our sample report that they were negatively affected by the suspension of fantasy football at the advent of COVID-19. Once resumed, fantasy football helped mitigate some of the negative emotions caused by COVID-19 and it worked as a distraction for 78.5% of the managers during the pandemic. The statistical analysis indicates that though the role of fantasy football as a distraction was evident across all age groups the effect was more acute in case of the highly involved managers (defined by, level of competitiveness and time invested in the game during weekends).