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on Sports and Economics |
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Issue of 2011‒10‒01
three papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Frick, Bernd (University of Paderborn); Humphreys, Brad (University of Alberta, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The predictions that emerge from tournament theory have been tested in a number of sports-related settings. Since sporting events involving individuals (golf, tennis, running, auto racing) feature rank order tournaments with relatively large payoffs and easily observable outcomes, sports is a natural setting for such tests. In this paper, we test the predictions of tournament theory using a unique race-level data set from NASCAR. Most of the previous tests of tournament theory using NASCAR data have used either season level data or race level data from a few seasons. Our empirical work uses race level NASCAR data for 1,114 races over the period 1975-2009. Our results support the predictions of tournament theory: the larger the spread in prizes paid in the race, measured by the standard deviation of prizes paid or the interquartile range of prizes paid, the higher the average speed in the race. Our results account for the length of the track, the number of entrants, the number of caution flags, and unobservable year and week heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | NASCAR; tournament theory |
| JEL: | J22 J33 L83 |
| Date: | 2011–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2011_012&r=spo |
| By: | Simone Becker |
| Abstract: | Sport zur Gesundheitsbeeinflussung ist in westlichen Industriegesellschaften ein gesellschaftlich akzeptiertes Mittel. Da jedoch die meisten existierenden Studien auf Querschnittdaten beruhen, lassen sich auf der Grundlage dieser Studien keine kausalen Aussagen zur komplexen Wechselwirkung von Sport und Gesundheit treffen. Es stellt sich also die Frage, ob Sportler gesünder sind, weil sie Sport treiben oder ob Gesunde mehr Sport treiben. Die durchgeführten Analysen beziehen sich auf Daten aus dem Sozio-Oekonomischen Panel (SOEP). Die SOEP-Auswertungen belegen, dass eine hohe Gesundheitszufriedenheit den Beginn eines sportlichen Lebensstils fördert und das Abbruchrisiko sportlicher Aktivität reduziert. |
| Keywords: | Sport, Gesundheit, SOEP, Medizinsoziologie, Sportsoziologie, Ereignisdatenanalyse, Gesundheitszufriedenheit |
| JEL: | I31 J26 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp400&r=spo |
| By: | Bodvarsson, Örn B. (St. Cloud State University); Sessions, John G. (University of Bath) |
| Abstract: | The traditional Becker/Arrow style model of discrimination depicts majority and minority and workers as perfectly substitutable inputs, implying that all workers have the same job assignment. The model is only appropriate for determining whether pay differences between, for example, whites and non-whites doing job assignment A are attributable to prejudice ('within-assignment discrimination'); It is inappropriate, however, for determining whether pay differences between whites in job assignment A and non-whites in job assignment B reflect discriminatory behaviour ('cross-assignment discrimination'). We test the model of such cross assignment discrimination developed by Bodvarsson and Sessions (2011) using data on Major League Baseball hitters and pitchers for four different seasons during the 1990s, a decade during which monopsony power fell. We find strong evidence of ceteris paribus racial pay differences between hitters and pitchers, as well as evidence that cross-assignment discrimination varies with labour market structure. |
| Keywords: | wage discrimination, complementarity, monopsony power |
| JEL: | J7 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5989&r=spo |