Lottery sales and per-capita GDP : an Inverted U relationship

• Main Author: Kaiseler, Maria João
• Publication Date: 2008
• Other Authors: Faustino, Horácio C.
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/2474
• topic: Gambling; Per-Capita GDP; Gender Ratio; Religion; Education

The main purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that the relationship between per-capita sales and per-capita GDP is given by an inverted U. The paper considers that lottery sales increase together with increases in GDP up to a point where a country has reached a level at which the GDP is high enough and lottery sales become an inferior good and as a result, start to decrease. As there are other determinants of the expenditure on lottery products, the paper introduces into the regression analysis other explanatory factors as control variables. The paper uses a cross-country regression, using 2004 data for 80 countries. The results confirm the hypothesis, in addition to yielding other interesting findings: countries with higher levels of education sell fewer lottery products; lottery sales increase together with increases in the male to female ratio.