In recent years, markets have evolved due to the disruption of digital marketplaces, and the rise of concerns about fairness, accountability and privacy. These changes have introduced new challenges for market designers. In this dissertation, we study the design and optimization of different markets. For each market, we provide a theoretical framework to analyze current solutions. Furthermore, we propose alternative solutions and identify the trade-offs between efficiency and other goals. In the first part of this dissertation, we study markets where tickets for a shared experience are allocated through a lottery. A group of agents is successful if and only if its members receive enough tickets for everyone. We study the efficiency and fairness of existing lottery mechanisms and propose practical alternatives. If agents must identify the members of their group, a natural solution is the Group Lottery, which orders groups uniformly at random and processes them sequentially. We show that the Group Lottery is approximately fair and approximately efficient. If agents may request multiple tickets without identifying members of their group, the most common mechanism is the Individual Lottery, which orders agents uniformly at random and awards each their request until no tickets remain. This approach can yield arbitrarily unfair and inefficient outcomes. As an alternative, we propose the Weighted Individual Lottery, in which the processing order is biased against agents with large requests. This simple modification makes the Weighted Individual Lottery  approximately fair and approximately efficient, and similar to the Group Lottery when there are many more agents than tickets. The second part of the dissertation focuses on markets in which an organization is presented with a set of individuals and must choose which subset to accept. The organization makes a selection based on a priority ranking of individuals as well as other observable characteristics. We propose the outcome based selection rules, which are defined by a collection of feasible selections and a greedy processing algorithm. For these rules, we (i) provide an axiomatic characterization, (ii) show that it chooses the only selection that respects priorities, and (iii) identify several cases where is efficient (choose the feasible selection with the highest value). Finally, we connect these ideas with the Chilean Constitutional Assembly election, and show that the rule that was implemented in practice is an outcome based selection rule. In the third part of this work, we study digital marketplaces where an online platform maximizes its revenue by influencing consumer buying behavior through the disclosure of information. In this market, consumers need to engage in a costly search process to acquire additional information. We develop a new model that combines a Bayesian persuasion problem with an optimal sequential search framework inspired by Weitzman's 1979. We characterize the platform's optimal policy under the assumption that the platform must provide a certain level of disclosure to incentivize the consumer to investigate. The optimal policy uses a binary signal indicating whether the item is a good match for the consumer or not. Additionally, we provide a conjecture on the platform's optimal policy when the assumption is relaxed and there are only two items. The structure of the optimal policy depends on the consumer's prior beliefs about the items and how they compare with the value of the outside option. However, in all scenarios, the optimal signals are either binary or uninformative. This conjecture is supported by a numerical analysis performed on a novel formulation based on quadratic programming.

Legal regulation of lotteries and other similar games The thesis deals with legal regulation of lotteries and other similar games not limited in the legal system of Czech Republic, but also from the perspective of European law. The main objective of this work is to analyze the legal provisions of the Act No. 202/1990 Coll., on the Lotteries and other similar games. It is a valid law, the basis adjustments operation of lotteries and other similar games in our country. The thesis is divided into the three chapters. The first chapter is subdivided into two major parts. The first part deals with the legal regulation of the lotteries and other similar games in the Czech legal order and the second part is focused on the legislation of this part of industry in the European legal order. The first part begins with a brief overview into the history of the gambling. Consequently I analyze the private law regulation with a focus on key provisions of the Act No. 40/1964 Coll., Civil Code. The largest part of the first chapter is devoted to analysis of the public law regulation of the games of chance in the relevant provisions of the Act No. 202/1990 Coll., on the Lotteries and other similar games. These are the provisions that define special properties of gambling and the specific conditions for gambling...

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze and to describe the effects of lottery revenue on the earmarked function of public elementary and secondary education in Michigan and New York. In order to update lottery information and provide the necessary background data for this study, the current status and performance of lotteries in the District of Columbia and the 22 states operating lotteries in 1986 are included in this research. An interrupted time-series design was employed to research the stability, reliability and yield of revenue from the state lotteries of Michigan and New York. Resultant data indicated that although in absolute dollars net lottery figures are impressive, they represent an unstable, low-yield portion of own source revenue in Michigan and New York. In addition, claims made by lottery proponents that net lottery revenue contributes to the expansion of the functional area of public elementary and secondary education were not supported by these data. / Ed. D.

This Master´s thesis deals with the impact of legislative changes in the realm of lotteries on the funding of sports by municipalities. This issue is explored in the practical part and the town of Jindřichův Hradec was used as an example. The aim of the thesis is to characterize the system of the funding of sports. Also, the thesis compares and contrasts the legislative state of the Act No 202/1990 Coll. of lotteries and similar games before and after its amendment which came into force on 1st January 2012. Finally, the thesis describes and assesses the support of sport clubs and sport associations by the town of Jindřichův Hradec, including practical calculations of the effects the law amendment had on the local handball club and its financial resources. It was found out that, in comparison with similar-scale cities, the town of Jindřichův Hradec provided above-average financial resources into the field of sport. The comparison of subsidy rules revealed that the new subsidy program presents the improvement, especially with the following aspects. First, there is the introduction of the preferred sport clubs institution. Second, there is the cancellation of the initial division into categories. Third, there is the establishment of the independence of the grant committee members. After an initial hesitation, the town approached the division of the money gained from lotteries very transparently and it usually tied up the allocation of the revenues to a current subsidy system. As far as the local handball club is concerned, there was palpable a positive change between the periods before and after the amendment.

The thesis is focused on changes in legislation in the field of lotteries and their impact on the budgets of selected municipalities. The gaming industry is a specific part of the economy which is connected with the unique taxation system. Since 2012, a new taxation system has been applied - it has consequences on public budgets. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate these changes and to qualify their impact on the amount and the structure of income from gambling in selected Prague city districts. The development of income from gambling is strongly influenced by city districts' attitude towards gambling. In city districts with zero tolerance of gambling, income from gambling dropped. On the contrary, city districts with high concentration of gambling increased their income. Due to existence of the Capital City of Prague, the position of city districts is different in comparison with the other cities and villages.

Title: Taxation of gambling operators The aim of this thesis is to introduce the system of the taxation of gambling operators currently applicable in the Czech republic together with the proposed bill on the gambling and the proposed bill on the taxation of gambling. At the beginning of the first chapter the thesis discusses the social costs of gambling addiction being a current social issue and its possible solutions from the viewpoint of law. Further parts of the chapter subsequently deal with the european legislation on public regulation of gambling, institutes of the Act on lotteries on other similar games as the primary piece of gambling legislation and their relation to the Civil Code. The subchapter regarding the right of municipalities to regulate some of the types of gambling by the means of municipal ordinances follows, including the question of an assesment of the said issue by the Constitutional Court. The last part of the first chapter contains detailed analysis of the proposed bill on the gambling, including comparation of some of its institutes with the current legislation and their partial assesment. The second chapter focuses on the actual system of legal regulation of the taxation of gambling operators, analyses the types of financial duties imposed on the operators and does not...

The goal of the thesis "The economic and social aspects of casinos and slot machines in the border areas" was to design an economically and socially beneficial policy towards gaming rooms and casinos in the area of the town Cheb. The work is divided into several parts. The first part deals with the experience of economic and social aspects of casinos and slot machines. In the practical part is described the situation of casinos, slot machines and gaming rooms in Cheb. Under the terms of economic factors of gambling was made the comparison of their incomes and expenditures, observations focused on tourism, the local multiplier calculation and proving the depending between unemployment and number of slot machines. In the section of social factors are characterized socio-pathological phenomena. In the last part there was suggested the policy for gambling in the town Cheb.

The objectives of this study were to provide a detailed biopsychosocial description of the characteristics of a sample of 100 individuals screened and referred by the National Responsible Gaming Programme helpline for their outpatient treatment programme over an eighteen month period, and, importantly, to measure the success of this specific treatment programme at set intervals, up to a one year follow-up period. While 80% of the sample did not relapse during the six-week treatment programme, the number of treatment seekers without any gambling relapses during each follow-up period declined, and those falling back into gambling increased as time went on. After one year 47% of treatment seekers managed not to revert back to gambling – total abstinence. A further 28% reported having relapsed once or twice or that their gambling was controlled. 25% of treatment seekers reported that they reverted back to gambling fulltime which leaves the success rate of the treatment at 75%. Treatment seekers reported an overall reduction in gambling participation, debt and expenditure and an overall improvement in social and vocational functioning. There is evidence in this study to support the perspective that pathological gambling is a multidimensional disorder and that certain sub-groups of gamblers have distinct gambling behaviour. / Psychology / M.Soc.Sc.

Esta tese investiga a relação do Estado com o teatro no Brasil no período de 1822 a 1889, por meio da subvenção às Artes Cênicas. Procura relacionar a documentação produzida pelo executivo e o legislativo dedicada ao teatro aos debates dos homens de letras sobre a questão teatral nos periódicos do Rio Janeiro. Investiga o patrocínio às Artes e à Literatura, na França do XVII e a assimilação desse modelo em Portugal durante o século XVIII e no Brasil a partir do XIX. Examina a ação da Revue des Deux Mondes na divulgação do teatro francês no Brasil. Analisa o alvará de 1771, primeira legislação produzida em Portugal para a normatização dos teatros públicos do reino e a sua permanência no Brasil após o processo de independência. Contribui com documentos novos para aprofundamento do estudo da história do teatro brasileiro. / This thesis investigates the relation between the State and the theatre in Brazil during 1822 and 1889, through the subvention to the Scenic Arts. It tries to correlate the documents produced by the Executive and the Legislative dedicated to the theatre and to the debates from the academic man regarding the theatrical matter on Rio de Janeiro papers. It studies the sponsorship to the Literature and Arts during the XVII in France and the uptake of the same model during XVIII in Portugal and in Brazil from XIX. It examines the action of Revue des Deux Mondes regarding the promotion of the French theatre in Brazil. It analyses the 1771 Permit, first legislation produced in Portugal seeking the regulation of the realm public theatres and its continuance in Brazil after the independence process. It contributes with new documents for a deep study of the Brazilian theatre history.

The objectives of this study were to provide a detailed biopsychosocial description of the characteristics of a sample of 100 individuals screened and referred by the National Responsible Gaming Programme helpline for their outpatient treatment programme over an eighteen month period, and, importantly, to measure the success of this specific treatment programme at set intervals, up to a one year follow-up period. While 80% of the sample did not relapse during the six-week treatment programme, the number of treatment seekers without any gambling relapses during each follow-up period declined, and those falling back into gambling increased as time went on. After one year 47% of treatment seekers managed not to revert back to gambling – total abstinence. A further 28% reported having relapsed once or twice or that their gambling was controlled. 25% of treatment seekers reported that they reverted back to gambling fulltime which leaves the success rate of the treatment at 75%. Treatment seekers reported an overall reduction in gambling participation, debt and expenditure and an overall improvement in social and vocational functioning. There is evidence in this study to support the perspective that pathological gambling is a multidimensional disorder and that certain sub-groups of gamblers have distinct gambling behaviour. / Psychology / M.Soc.Sc.