By: |
Peter Dolton;
George MacKerron |
Abstract: |
Football is the national sport of most of the planet. This paper examines how
happy the outcomes of football matches make us. We calibrate these results
relative to other activities and estimate the dynamic effects these exogenous
events have on our utility over time. We find that football – on average –
makes us unhappier – so why would we go through the pain of following a
football team. This behavioural choice paradox occupies much of the paper so
we investigate why we go on following our teams, even though matches make us
more unhappy on average. We examine how much our story changes if we examine
the dynamic effects of football matches over time in different hours before
and after the game and the extent to which our happiness is influenced by what
we would rationally expect the result to be beforehand – as based on the
betting odds. |
Keywords: |
happiness, football, behavioural economics, irrationality, dynamic effects of outcomes, framed subjective utility |
JEL: |
D23 D03 |
Date: |
2018–04 |
URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:493&r=spo |