|
on Sports and Economics |
|
Issue of 2007‒08‒27
four papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Robert Baade (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College); Robert Baumann (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross); Victor Matheson (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | College football and men’s basketball are the largest revenue generators in college athletics. Studies funded by athletic boosters tout the economic benefits of a college athletic program as an incentive for host cities to construct new stadiums or arenas at considerable public expense. Our analysis of the economic impact of home football and men’s basketball games on Tallahassee (home of Florida State University) and Gainesville (home of the University of Florida) between 1980 to early-2007 fails to support these claims. Men’s basketball games at these universities have no statistically significant impact on taxable sales, while football yields a modest gain of $2 to $3 million per home game. While this positive finding is one of the first in the academic literature of the impact of sports, these gains pale in comparison to the figures in many of the studies funded by athletic boosters. |
| Keywords: | sports, basketball, football, college sports, impact analysis, mega-event |
| JEL: | L83 O18 R53 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:0704&r=spo |
| By: | AURIOL, Emmanuelle; RENAULT, Régis |
| JEL: | D82 J33 L83 M12 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:6994&r=spo |
| By: | Matthias Sutter; Christina Strassmair |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of communication in an experimental tournament between teams. When teams, rather than individuals, compete for a prize there is a need for intra-team coordination in order to win the inter-team competition. Introducing communication in such situations may have ambiguous effects on effort choices. Communication within teams may promote higher efforts by mitigating the internal free-rider problem. Communication between competing teams may lead to collusion, thereby reducing efforts. In our experiment we control the channels of communication by letting subjects communicate through an electronic chat. We find, indeed, that communication within teams increases efforts and communication between teams reduces efforts. We use team members’ dialogues to explain these effects of communication, and check the robustness of our results. |
| Keywords: | Tournament, Team decision making, Communication, Collusion, Free-riding, Experiment |
| JEL: | C92 J33 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2007-19&r=spo |
| By: | Matthias Schonlau; Arthur van Soest; Arie Kapteyn |
| Abstract: | Inference from Web surveys may be affected by non-random selection of Web survey participants. One approach to reduce selection bias is to use propensity scores and a parallel phone survey. This approach uses demographic and additional so-called Webographic or lifestyle variables to balance observed differences between Web survey respondents and phone survey respondents. Here the authors investigate some of the Webographic questions used by Harris Interactive, a commercial company specializing in Web surveys. Their Webographic questions include choice of activities such as reading, sports and traveling and perceptions about what would constitute a violation of privacy. They use data from an existing probability sample of respondents over 40 who are interviewed over the phone, and a corresponding sample of respondents interviewed over the Web. They find that Webographic questions differentiate between on and offline populations differently than demographic questions. In general, propensity score adjustment of variables in the Web survey works quite well for a number of variables of interest (including home ownership and labor force participation). For two outcomes, (having emotional problems and often experiencing pain) the process of adjusting for demographic variables leads to the discovery of an instance of SimpsonÕs paradox, implying a differential mode effect or differential selection. They interpret this mainly as the result of a mode effect, where sensitive questions are more likely to receive a positive response over the Internet than over the phone. |
| Keywords: | propensity scoring, Web survey, selection bias, Webographic variables |
| JEL: | C42 C80 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:506&r=spo |