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on Sports and Economics |
| By: | Steven J. Brams; Mehmet S. Ismail; D. Marc Kilgour; Walter Stromquist |
| Abstract: | Service sports include two-player contests such as volleyball, badminton, and squash. We analyze four rules, including the Standard Rule (SR), in which a player continues to serve until he or she loses. The Catch-Up Rule (CR) gives the serve to the player who has lost the previous point - as opposed to the player who won the previous point, as under SR. We also consider two Trailing Rules that make the server the player who trails in total score. Surprisingly, compared with SR, only CR gives the players the same probability of winning a game while increasing its expected length, thereby making it more competitive and exciting to watch. Unlike one of the Trailing Rules, CR is strategy-proof. By contrast, the rules of tennis fix who serves and when; its tiebreaker, however, keeps play competitive by being fair - not favoring either the player who serves first or who serves second. |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1808.06922&r=spo |
| By: | René Böheim; Dominik Grübl; Mario Lackner |
| Abstract: | We analyze performance under pressure and estimate the causal effect of audience size on the success of free throws in top-level professional basketball. We use data from the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the seasons 2007/08 through 2015/16. We exploit the exogenous variation in weather conditions on game day to establish a causal link between attendance size and performance. Our results confirm a sizeable and strong negative effect of the number of spectators on performance. Home teams in (non-critical) situations at the beginning of games perform worse when the audience is larger. This result is consistent with the theory of a home choke rather than a home field advantage. Our results have potentially large implications for general questions of workplace design and help to further understand how the social environment affects performance. We demonstrate that the amount of support, i.e. positive feedback, from a friendly audience does affect performance. |
| Keywords: | performance under pressure; choking; social pressure |
| JEL: | D03 J24 M54 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2018_09&r=spo |
| By: | Jung, Seeun (Inha University, Department of Economics); Vranceanu, Radu (ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School) |
| Abstract: | In a classical experiment, Niederle and Vesterlund (2007) used the dichotomous choice of individuals between a piece rate and a tournament payment scheme as an indication of their propensity to compete. This paper reports results from a two person interaction of a similar type to analyze whether the preference for competition is dependent on the gender of the partner. It introduces a Becker–DeGroot–Marschak mechanism to elicit individual willingness to compete (WTC), defined as the amount of money that makes an individual indifferent between the two compensation schemes. Even when controlling for risk aversion, past performance and overconfidence, the male WTC is e3.30 larger than the female WTC. The WTC instrument allows for a more precise analysis of the impact of the partner's gender on the taste for competition. |
| Keywords: | willingness-to-compete; experiments; gender effect; BDM mechanism |
| JEL: | C91 D03 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:essewp:dr-17001&r=spo |
| By: | Anna Gerke (Audencia Recherche - Audencia Business School); Yan Dalla Pria (CeRSM - Centre de Recherche sur le Sport et le Mouvement - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre) |
| Abstract: | Sport clusters can be defined as geographical concentrations of private, public, and non-profitorganizations in a denominated area with a shared interest in one or similar sports. This paper addresses the following question: how does socioeconomic proximity – linkages between organizations or individuals which go beyond spatial proximity – influence the development and properties of sport clusters? This qualitative study investigates four sport clusters in surfing and sailing. The findings indicate that there are two types of sport clusters based on different forms of socioeconomic proximity. The surfing clusters are characterized by cognitive proximity based on convergent perceptions and managerial practices. The sailing clusters are characterzed by organizational proximity based on complementarity. This article (1) discusses the resilience properties of these two types of clusters and (2) proposes a two-step model of cluster development. This research has implications for policy makers and cluster members by showing that clusters should be considered to be social constructions that go through different stages. |
| Keywords: | sport cluster,socioeconomic proximity,resilience |
| Date: | 2017–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01852222&r=spo |