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on Sports and Economics |
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Issue of 2007‒06‒18
seven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Florian Hagn; Wolfgang Maennig (University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | Olympic Games may have impacts on income and employment in the host city, but no ex post study has been carried out for European Olympic host cities to date. The present study closes this gap using the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The data period examined in this study allows for analysis of long-term effects. In addition, the methodology avoids overestimating the significance of the effects. Finally, we report results for all possible combinations of pre- and post-Olympic periods. The results: income in Olympic regions grew significantly faster than in other German regions. In contrast, no employment effects were identified. |
| Keywords: | Labour market, regional economics, sports economics, World Cup, Stadium Impact |
| JEL: | L83 R53 R58 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0716&r=spo |
| By: | Stephanie Jasmand; Wolfgang Maennig (University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | Olympic Games may have impacts on income and employment in the host city, but no ex post study has been carried out for European Olympic host cities to date. The present study closes this gap using the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The data period examined in this study allows for analysis of long-term effects. In addition, the methodology avoids overestimating the significance of the effects. Finally, we report results for all possible combinations of pre- and post-Olympic periods. The results: income in Olympic regions grew significantly faster than in other German regions. In contrast, no employment effects were identified. |
| Keywords: | Olympic Games, mega events, income, employment |
| JEL: | L83 O18 R11 R53 R58 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0712&r=spo |
| By: | Stefan Kesenne (University of Antwerp; Department of Human Kinesiology, Catholic University of Leuven) |
| Abstract: | In this contribution, we try to investigate the impact of a win bonus on the winning percentage, the competitive balance, the owner profits and the overall quality in a professional sports league in a simple game theoretic approach. We starts from the well-known Quirk and Fort (1992) two-club model. In this model, we introduce a premium system consisting of a win bonus that is paid on top of a fixed salary. Assuming that players are motivated to increase effort if their salary depends on the winning percentage, we derive the Nash-Cournot equilibrium under both the profit and a win maximisation hypothesis. The impact of a premium system turns out to be rather complex, given the fact that clubs react to the strategies of other clubs in the league. The team that introduces a premium system can expect to increase its profits or its winning percentage by paying a bonus combined with a reduced fixed salary. A crucial factor, though, is the players’ response to the win bonus. If the team’s effort is not enhanced enough by the bonus, the team’s profits and wining percentage can go down. Also the effect that the winning percentage has on club revenue is an important factor. |
| Keywords: | sports |
| JEL: | L83 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:cpaper:0713&r=spo |
| By: | Victor Matheson (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross); Robert Baade (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College); Mimi Nikolova (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College) |
| Abstract: | Supporters of sports stadium construction often defend taxpayer subsidies for stadiums by suggesting that sports infrastructure can serve as an anchor for local economic redevelopment. Have such promises of economic rejuvenation been realized? The City of Chicago provides an interesting case study on how a new stadium, U. S. Cellular Field, has been integrated into its southside neighborhood in a way that may well have limited local economic activity. This economic outcome stands in stark contrast to Wrigley Field in northern Chicago which continues to experience a synergistic commercial relationship with its neighborhood. |
| Keywords: | sports, stadiums, development, baseball, Chicago, economic impact |
| JEL: | L83 O18 R53 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:cpaper:0705&r=spo |
| By: | Neil Longley (Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts); Todd Crosset (Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts); Steve Jefferson (Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts) |
| Abstract: | The institutional racial discrimination that existed in American professional team sports prior to World War II resulted in African American players effectively being barred from playing in the major professional leagues. Although the NFL color barrier did officially fall in 1946, to be quickly followed by the fall of the MLB color barrier one year later when Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers, these events were just the beginning of the struggles for African American athletes. Integration proceeded very slowly during the next two decades, and economists have shown that African Americans continued to suffer from a variety of forms of discriminatory treatment. However, it is the argument of this paper that the literature that examines discrimination during this era is incomplete, in that it ignores the experiences of a small, but relatively significant, group of African American football players who actually chose to leave their own country – and correspondingly leave the racially-charged environment of mid-20th century America – to head north to play professional football in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Beginning in 1946, a steady flow of African Americans began to migrate to the CFL which, at the time, was a legitimate competitor league to the NFL. This paper attempts to test a perception seemingly held by some that, by moving to Canada, African American football players were able to escape the racial injustices they often suffered in the US. This view appears to have its roots in the notion that Canada is a “gentler”, more tolerant society, without the divisive socio-political history that characterizes much of the race relations in the US. This paper tests these notions using a variety of empirical approaches. The results indicate that, while African Americans were better represented in the CFL relative to the NFL, African Americans still faced some level of entry discrimination in the CFL. In particular, African American players in the CFL outperformed their white counterparts on numerous performance dimensions, indicating the overall talent level in the CFL could have been further improved by employing an even greater number of African Americans. Additionally, the paper finds that those CFL teams that employed the highest percentage of African Americans were those teams that had the most on-field success. Finally, the paper analyzes prices of player trading cards from that era, and finds that cards of African Americans were undervalued, relative to white CFL players of equal talent. |
| Keywords: | sports |
| JEL: | J71 L83 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:cpaper:0707&r=spo |
| By: | Madeleine Andreff (University Marne-la-Vallée); Wladimir Andreff (University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of international trade in sports goods is still in its infancy. Only four articles dealing with the topic have appeared in economic literature so far. In order to alleviate the sports economists ignorance about international specialisation in sports goods trade, we started to build up an entirely new dataset based on extracting data available in Comtrade (the UN word trade data basis) at the most disaggregated level (6 digits). After resolving a number of classification and statistical tricks, we have built up a country and sports goods dataset (41 countries, 36 goods), which gathers 94-96% of sports goods global trade every sampled year (1994, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2004). Our country sample is divided into five regional areas of the world economy: NAFTA, EU + Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Asia, other emerging countries. As a first step, our dataset enables us to precisely describe the major flows of sports goods global trade. Major trading areas are Asia, Europe and NAFTA while major exporters are China, Hong Kong, the US and France, and major importers are the US, Japan, Germany, France, the UK and Italy. A major market share in sports goods global trade is for sportswear, anoraks, and gymnastic equipment. Asia, Eastern Europe and emerging countries have an excess balance in sports goods trade whereas NAFTA and Europe are in deficit. Different assessments, including one of revealed comparative advantages and disadvantages and a competitiveness index, depict the following international specialisation: NAFTA and Europe are specialised in ‘equipment intensive’ sports goods whereas Asia, Eastern Europe and emerging countries are specialised in ‘trite’ sports goods and some less equipment intensive sports goods. NAFTA is competitive in not any sport good, Europe is competitive in skis, emerging countries and Eastern Europe in sportswear and anoraks, and Asia in sportswear, anoraks, rackets, balls, skates, and gymnastic equipment. A principal component analysis often groups ‘trite’ sports goods together as opposed to intensive-equipment sports goods in global trade. A hierarchical ascendant classification methodology shows that China is a quite specific (dominant) trade partner in the global market for sports goods trade, Indonesia and Pakistan are platform for (Nike’s) outward-processing trade, international specialisation differentiates countries where sports goods production was relocated from trade partners with big domestic markets for sports goods. \ |
| Keywords: | sports economics, sports goods, international trade, international specialisation, globalisation, comparative advantage, competitiveness |
| JEL: | L83 Z19 F01 F14 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0715&r=spo |
| By: | Cindy Du Bois (Vrije Universiteit Brussel); Bruno Heyndels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) |
| Abstract: | Using entries in the 2005 IAAF rankings as a measure of a country’s success in athletics, we analyse intercountry differences in athletic specialisation (measured through an index for revealed symmetric comparative advantage). A Tobit II model identifies macro-economic, sociological and political conditions that shape patterns of specialisation. We observe geographical patterns: African and Carribean (and to a lesser extent Asian) countries have a ‘typical’ pattern of specialisation. Highly populated as well as richer countries diversify more. Larger countries specialise in sprinting and middle distance running while leading to comparative disadvantages in non-running events. Finally, (former) socialist countries have a significant revealed comparative advantage in non-running events and a disadvantage in sprinting. |
| Keywords: | athletics, revealed comparative advantage, specialisation |
| JEL: | L83 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:cpaper:0702&r=spo |