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on Sports and Economics |
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Issue of 2010‒06‒04
three papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Healy, Andrew J. (Loyola Marymount University); Malhotra, Neil (Stanford University); Mo, Cecilia H. (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | According to what criteria do citizens make political decisions, and what do these criteria say about democratic competence? An impressive body of evidence suggests that voters competently evaluate diagnostic information such as macroeconomic trends and their personal financial circumstances to reward good performance while ridding themselves of leaders who are corrupt, incompetent, or ineffective. However, what if some voters' personal emotional reactions to events completely unrelated to public affairs influence their voting decisions? The conflation of personal emotions with political cognition challenges traditional conceptions of citizen competence and democratic accountability. We explore whether emotional reactions unrelated to incumbent performance affect voting behavior by assessing the electoral impact of local college football games, events that government has nothing to do with and for which no government response would be expected. On average, a win before Election Day causes the incumbent to receive about one percentage point more of the vote, with the effect being larger for teams with stronger fan support. We corroborate these aggregate-level results with a survey conducted during the 2009 NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament, where we find that sports-induced emotional change affects approval of President Obama and assessments of the health of the country. Voters' decisions and attitudes are thus shown to depend considerably on events that affect their personal level of happiness even when those events are entirely disconnected from government activity. Our results provide new evidence on the significant limitations of the electorate's capacity to hold elected officials accountable for their actions. |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:2034&r=spo |
| By: | Gränsmark, Patrik (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents empirical findings on gender differences in time preference and time inconsistency which are based on international chess data from 1.5 million expert games. Controls are included for age, nationality and playing strength where the latter accounts for gender differences in productivity. Impatience is measured by considering preferences for different game durations. Inconsistency is measured by exploiting the 40th move time control, where over-consumption of thinking time is inefficient. The results reveal that men are more impatient while women are more time inconsistent. Moreover, the difference in impatience increases with expertise while the difference in inconsistency decreases. |
| Keywords: | Time preference; time inconsistency; impatience; gender |
| JEL: | D91 J16 |
| Date: | 2010–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2010_005&r=spo |
| By: | Dreber, Anna (Harvard U); Rand, David G. (Harvard U); Garcia, Justin R. (Binghamton U, SUNY); Wernerfelt, Nils (Harvard U); Lum, J. Koji (Binghamton U, SUNY); Zeckhauser, Richard (Harvard U) |
| Abstract: | Individuals differ significantly in their willingness to take risks. Such differences may stem, at least in part, from individual biological (genetic) differences. We explore how risk-taking behavior varies with different versions of the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4), which has been implicated in previous studies of risk taking. We investigate risk taking in three contexts: economic risk taking as proxied by a financial gamble, self-reported general risk taking, and self-reported behavior in risk-related activities. Our participants are serious tournament bridge players with substantial experience in risk taking. Presumably, this sample is much less varied in its environment than a random sample of the population, making genetic-related differences easier to detect. A prior study (Dreber et al. 2010) looked at risk taking by these individuals in their bridge decisions. We examine their risk decisions in other contexts. We find evidence that individuals with a 7-repeat allele (7R+) of the DRD4 genetic polymorphism take significantly more economic risk in an investment game than individuals without this allele (7R-). Interestingly, this positive relationship is driven by the men in our study, while the women show a negative but non-significant result. Even though the number of 7R+ women in our sample is low, our results may indicate a gender difference in how the 7R+ genotype affects behavior, a possibility that merits further study. Considering other risk measures, we find no difference between 7R+ and 7R- individuals in general risk taking or any of the risk-related activities. Overall, our results indicate that the dopamine system plays an important role in explaining individual differences in economic risk taking in men, but not necessarily in other activities involving risk. |
| JEL: | C91 C93 D81 D87 G00 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp10-012&r=spo |