Paying Not to Go to the Gym - Book Report/Review Example

Paying not to go to the Gym Summary of the Article The journal article selected for writing referee report is the article published in American Economic Review in June 2006. The title of this article is ‘’Paying Not to go to the Gym’’. It is written by two able professors DellaVigna Stefano and Ulrike Malmendier who teach in University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University respectively. The title of this famous research based journal article is self-explanatory. This research paper aims at discussing the gym joining and gym going habits of its members. This article is based on research on 7,752 member’s frequency of exercises in three US health clubs. It is a matter of amaze to read the finding of this research that most of the members of these health clubs visit only a few times in a typical month. Some of the members even visited their respective club only once or two. This article is a well-organized and carefully arranged piece of research provides us amazing and important insights into the dark sides of exercising habits of individuals. The meticulously prepared tables by authors provide the readers a broad based approach towards this important topic of health economics. This research is based on the methodology of analyzing the attendance statistics of 7752 members of three U. S. health clubs. There are eight main findings of this research paper which are briefly discussed in this paragraph. This research discovers that the price per average attendance of members is $17.27. There is a positive correlation of price per average attendance and interval between last attendance and termination. There is a decreasing average attendance over time in monthly contracts. For the members that have annual contract, the average attendance is 27% higher in second year. The interval between last attendance and termination is full 2.31 months. As per users, they visit club 9.5 times on average whereas in reality they visit 4.17 times. Recommendations There is no denying the fact that the reviewed research paper is well researched, well organized and well written. The authors of this research based paper are seasonal professors of world’s prestigious universities. It is not easy for a person like me to recommend changes to the authors of this research based paper. However, upon repetitive readings of this research paper, to some extent, I have been able to find some important points that need to be considered by the authors of this research paper. In other words, there are still chances to make some necessary improvements in this research paper. If I was supposed to help editor of a journal decide whether this article should be published or not, I would have recommended that this article should be published due to the reasons; the content of the whole article is of high standards; there are no errors of format, organization, and reporting of data; the subject relate knowledge is of high standards; and the research conducted by these two research scholars is of high standards. Although, this article is of high standards from all angles, but there is still some little rooms for improvement. That is why some important points to be considered are recommended in the later part of this document. Discussion of the Importance of the Work It comes up with no surprise that there is a great importance of this work in the area of health and economics in general and for health economics in particular. Achieving and adopting economic means to perform a work is an important area of study in academic and practical life. Finding and adopting cost effective and economical means to perform a work, which is important for us, is the most important topic for a person having limited income or fixed income. The findings of this research paper are also important for gyms and health clubs. Moreover, the health clubs and gyms that are facing shortage of space can also be benefited for this research study. The health clubs and gyms that are facing the problem of rush of members at a same time daily can also reduce the rush of people by identifying the needs of the members. This research study sheds light on the waste of money by people or members on health clubs. This research study focuses on the people who purchase contrast of health clubs but they do not use health clubs regularly which results in the waste of money. This research study also guide the health clubs, gyms and their members about the designing and selection of contracts respectively. On the basis of findings of this research paper, members of health and fitness clubs and gyms can be able to select a best suiting contract as per their needs. On the other hand, the health clubs and gyms will be able to design more suitable contracts for a different members. Methodological Issues As we have discussed in the start of this paper that the research has been carried out by able and experienced professors who have years of experience in conducting and supervising research. Moreover, after reading this research paper it is evident that research methodologies have been used in a good manner to elaborate the findings and results of the research. Nevertheless, there is a need to improve the presentation of dataset by the authors of this research paper because some parts of this research paper do not present information in an utmost efficient and organized manner that ordinary people could be able to understand the information easily. There is a need to make the dataset in more presentable manner and user friendly manner so that ordinary people and people from other disciplines could be able to equally benefit from this research. After organizing the findings of this research, authors of this research paper have presented dataset of this research in long tables. These tables are long as well as populated with a lot of data related to the research study. It is a detailed study and that is why the article is also in detail. Tables are the best tools to exhibit dataset of research studies in an organized and easy to understand way but there are some rules to prepare good tables. Tables should not be so long and too much populated. Moreover, tables should not contain such king of information which is not easy to understand without reading the whole paper. These two issues are present in this research article. The tables in this research paper are so much populated with data. Moreover, these tables do not contain easy to understand information. Other parts of the article are of high standards. Suggestions Generally, suggestions in a referee report are made for authors in order to suggest revisions to get their paper published in a particular article but here the situation is different. In our case the authors of this research based article are notable and distinguished scholars who have been able to publish their article in a prestigious economics journal “American Economic Review”. However, there are still chances to make some necessary improvements in this research paper. So the following are some suggestions for the authors of this research papers. If I was supposed to recommend whether this paper is eligible to publish or not, I would have recommended this paper to be published in American Economic Review research journal. Moreover I would have made some suggestions for revision of some points in this research paper. The notable and distinguished scholars who wrote this paper have used subject related information in this paper and due to this reason the people from other academic backgrounds and ordinary people may feel it difficult to understand this research study. So there is a need to make it easy to understand this important research study because this study has a broad scope. Bibliography DellaVigna, Stefano, and Ulrike Malmendier. (2006). Paying Not to go to the Gym. The American Economic Review (2006): 694-719. Read More