nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2024‒10‒14
four papers chosen by
Humberto Barreto, DePauw University


  1. High Temperatures and Workplace Injuries By Picchio, Matteo; van Ours, Jan C.
  2. Momentum Dynamics in Competitive Sports: A Multi-Model Analysis Using TOPSIS and Logistic Regression By Mingpu Ma
  3. Are Minorities Punished More Harshly for Underperformance? Evidence from Premier League Soccer By Alrababah, Ala; Marble, William; Mousa, Salma; Siegel, Alexandra Arons
  4. Friends, Key Players and the Adoption and Use of Experience Goods By Rhys Murrian; Paul A. Raschky; Klaus Ackermann

  1. By: Picchio, Matteo (Marche Polytechnic University); van Ours, Jan C. (Erasmus School of Economics)
    Abstract: High temperatures can have a negative effect on workplace safety for a variety of reasons. Discomfort and reduced concentration caused by heat can lead to workers making mistakes and injuring themselves. Discomfort can also be an incentive for workers to report an injury that they would not have reported in the absence of heat. We investigate how temperature affects injuries of professional tennis players in outdoor singles matches. We find that for men injury rates increase with ambient temperatures. For women, there is no effect of high temperatures on injuries. Among male tennis players, there is some heterogeneity in the temperature effects, which seem to be influenced by incentives. Specifically, when a male player is losing at the beginning of a crucial (second) fourth set in (best-of-three) best-of-five matches, the temperature effect is much larger than when he is winning. In best-offive matches, which are more exhausting, this effect is age-dependent and stronger for older players.
    Keywords: climate change, temperatures, tennis, injuries, health
    JEL: J24 J81 Q51 Q54
    Date: 2024–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17272
  2. By: Mingpu Ma
    Abstract: This paper explores the concept of "momentum" in sports competitions through the use of the TOPSIS model and 0-1 logistic regression model. First, the TOPSIS model is employed to evaluate the performance of two tennis players, with visualizations used to analyze the situation's evolution at every moment in the match, explaining how "momentum" manifests in sports. Then, the 0-1 logistic regression model is utilized to verify the impact of "momentum" on match outcomes, demonstrating that fluctuations in player performance and the successive occurrence of successes are not random. Additionally, this paper examines the indicators that influence the reversal of game situations by analyzing key match data and testing the accuracy of the models with match data. The findings show that the model accurately explains the conditions during matches and can be generalized to other sports competitions. Finally, the strengths, weaknesses, and potential future improvements of the model are discussed.
    Date: 2024–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2409.02872
  3. By: Alrababah, Ala; Marble, William; Mousa, Salma; Siegel, Alexandra Arons (University of Colorado Boulder)
    Abstract: Positive intergroup contact has been shown to improve attitudes toward stigmatized minorities. A concern with the contact paradigm is that it may place unreasonable demands on minorities to be high-performers. Are minorities judged more harshly for under-achieving relative to the majority group? Conversely, are minorities more readily rewarded for their success? We use evidence from English top-tier soccer to answer these questions. We measure how journalists and fans react to players’ performances, using objective measures of performance. We find little evidence of discrimination based on nationality and ethnicity. These results are consistent across three diverse datasets consisting of millions of social media posts, hundreds of thousands of newspaper articles, and tens of thousands of Fantasy Premier League transfers. The discrimination we do uncover — when players perform extremely poorly — is small in magnitude, and often runs counter to the expected direction. Journalists and fans punish poor performances, but not differentially so based on player identity. The results suggest that minorities need not uphold ‘model minority’ myths in order to be accepted.
    Date: 2024–09–10
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:7d2cu
  4. By: Rhys Murrian (Department of Economics and SoDa Labs, Monash University); Paul A. Raschky (Department of Economics and SoDa Labs, Monash University); Klaus Ackermann (Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics and SoDa Labs, Monash University)
    Abstract: This paper empirically investigates how an individual’s network influences their purchase and subsequent use of experience goods. Utilising data on the network and game-ownership of over 108 million users from the world’s largest video game platform, we analyse whether a user’s friendship network influences their decision to purchase single-player video games. Our identification strategy uses an instrumental variable (IV) approach that employs the temporal lag of purchasing decisions from second degree friends. We find strong peer effects in the individual game adoption in the contemporary week. The effect is stronger if the friend who purchased the game is an old friend compared to a key player in the friendship network. Comparing the results to adoption decisions for a major label game, we find peer effects of a similar size and duration. However, the time subsequently spent playing the games is higher for players who were neither influenced by a peer who is a key player nor an old friend. Considering the increasing importance of online networks on consumption decisions, our findings offer some first insights on the heterogeneity of peer effects between old and key player friends and also provide evidence in consumers' biases in social learning.
    Keywords: networks, experience goods, product adoption, taste projection
    JEL: D12 Z13
    Date: 2024–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajr:sodwps:2024-03

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