| By: |
Trenton Smith;
Young H. Lee (School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University) |
| Abstract: |
Theories of rational addiction posit that certain habit -forming goods
"characterized by an increasing marginal utility of consumption "generate
predictable dynamic patterns of consumer behavior. It has been suggested that
attendance at sporting events represents an example of such a good, as
evidenced by the pricing strategies of commercial sports interests. In this
essay, we provide new evidence in support of rational addiction for the case
of Major League Baseball, but fail to find such support in data from the
Korean Professional Baseball League. We then review the scientific literature
on sports fans from the perspective of human behavioral ecology and propose a
theory of endogenous habit formation among sports fans that could explain our
findings. |
| Keywords: |
Attendance Demand, Habit Formation, Baseball Addiction, Fan Psychology, Testosterone |
| JEL: |
C32 D83 L83 |
| Date: |
2006–05 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsu:wpaper:tgsmith-3&r=spo |