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on Sports and Economics |
| By: | York, Richard (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the influence of crowd support on Australian Football League (AFL) match outcomes using data from 2018 to 2023, including crowd-restricted games during the COVID-19 pandemic. It finds home teams won 56.22% of games, scored 5.83 more points per game (ppg), and received 1.12 more free kicks on average than away teams—advantages that are strongest when teams travel from different cities or when the home team is ranked higher on the competition ladder prior to the commencement of the game. While overall crowd size does not correlate with match outcomes, relative crowd support (measured via membership data) does: a 1% increase in the home team’s proportion of total membership sales for competing teams is correlated with a 0.13-point increase in the score margin in favour of the home team. The paper also finds the home team winning percentage fell to 50% during games where COVID-19 restrictions prevented crowds attending games and the difference in scores between home and away teams fell to 4.234 ppg. However, a comparison of means with other types of AFL games was not statistically significant and regression analysis did not indicate a statistically significant co-efficient on “crowd lock-out†games when regressing differences in scores between home and away teams. Overall, the study suggests social pressure—particularly from crowds—can influence umpire decisions and broader match outcomes. This may support arguments for investing in independent umpire decision review systems in sport, but this must be weighed against the cost and potential to disrupt game flow from such systems. JEL classifications: C20 ; C23 ; C51 ; D71 ; L83 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:91 |
| By: | W. A. Rojas C.; A. Zamora V.; L. F. Quijano W.; Y. Beltran P |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an application of geometrothermodynamics (GTD) to the economic analysis of Bogot\'a's sports sector through the Satellite Account of Sport (CSDB). By establishing an analogy between thermodynamic systems and economic structures, we develop a mathematical framework where monetary flows behave analogously to energy, while economic entropy, temperature, and heat capacity acquire well-defined economic interpretations. The study focuses on two contrasting sectors: gambling and betting $\mathbb{S}_{15}$, and recreational and sports activities $\mathbb{S}_{16}$, analyzing data from 2018-2023. Our results demonstrate that $\mathbb{S}_{15}$ exhibits lower economic entropy than $\mathbb{S}_{16}$ , indicating a higher degree of organization and regulatory structure in the gambling sector compared to the more heterogeneous recreational sports sector. The heat capacity function reveals critical points that may signal phase transitions in economic dynamics, while Ricci and Kretschmann curvature scalars identify potential crisis points in the sectoral organization. Furthermore, the cross-income elasticity analysis shows distinct resource flow patterns between sectors, suggesting that gambling activities may serve as an economic driver for recreational sports. This thermodynamic approach provides a quantitative tool for analyzing resource redistribution policies and anticipating critical transitions in sectoral economics. The findings suggest that econophysics and statistical thermodynamics constitute powerful frameworks for understanding the sectoral dynamics of Bogot\'a's sports economy, with significant potential for developing prospective analysis tools in public policy design. |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2510.06248 |
| By: | Pere Gomez; Oriol Amat |
| Abstract: | This article focuses on identifying the sporting and financial variables that explain success both on the field and in the economic management of football teams. This is a relevant topic because modern football has become a multimillion-dollar business, and understanding the keys to success is essential not only for improving sporting performance but also for ensuring the financial stability of clubs. To simplify the multitude of variables that can affect both sporting and financial performance, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used. This method reduces the complexity of the data to just two key factors: the size of the club (measured by variables such as revenue, personnel costs, and market value) and financial performance (based on the Z-score credit evaluation model by Amat & others, 2017, and reflects a synthesis of indicators such as liquidity, debt, and profitability). These two factors are considered the most representative variables for understanding club success. Once these two factors are identified, a regression model is applied to see how size and financial performance influence sporting success, measured by points obtained in the competition. The analysis shows that the size of the club has a significant relationship with sporting success. In other words, clubs with higher revenue, investment in transfers, and a more valuable squad tend to achieve better results in terms of points. On the other hand, financial performance, while important for the club's economic health, is not a determining factor for short-term sporting success. The study also categorizes clubs into four types: those that achieve both sporting and financial success, those that excel in the sporting arena but have poor financial performance, those with financial success but not sporting success, and those that do not achieve good results either on the field or in economic management. This approach allows for the identification of patterns and trends in the relationship between sporting and financial success, providing a useful tool for analyzing football clubs and their management strategies. |
| Keywords: | Sporting success, economic success, football clubs, turnover, investment in players, principal components analysis, regression analysis, Spanish first football division |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1900 |
| By: | Pipke, David |
| Abstract: | Seminal evidence from Berger and Pope (2011) shows that teams slightly behind at halftime are more likely to win. A recent study by Klein Teeselink et al. (2023), however, suggests this finding is an artifact confined to the 1999–2009 NBA seasons. Using an independently assembled dataset of 546, 628 professional games, I revisit this question with a local regression-discontinuity design. I document that the “behind-at-halftime advantage” is not an artifact: it appears robustly in NBA/ABA play in the late 1960s–early 1970s and in non-U.S. leagues long after the original study. Its attenuation in the modern NBA coincides with strategic adjustments by leading teams, who appear to have learned to counter their opponents’ motivational surge. The results show that reference-dependent motivation is a robust phenomenon, but its expression in equilibrium depends on context and strategic adaptation by opponents. |
| Date: | 2025–09–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vdpj6_v1 |
| By: | Aomar Ibourk; Jihad Ait Soussane |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the long-term impact of hosting the FIFA World Cup on unemployment using panel data of 10 countries from 1983 to 2022. The empirical analysis used two estimation techniques namely the Robust Weighted Least Squares (RWLS) and Estimated Generalized Least Squares (EGLS) with fixed and random effects. Our findings reveal that hosting the FIFA World Cup can reduce long-term unemployment by 2.86% to 3.60% over four years after hosting the event. The reduction in unemployment is attributed to factors such as infrastructure development, which creates jobs both during and after the event; increased demand in the tourism and service sectors; and economic spillovers from foreign direct investment and local business growth. These findings suggest that under the right conditions, hosting the World Cup can have a positive and lasting impact on employment. |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:rpaeco:pptand2_25 |
| By: | Hendrik Sonnabend (University of Hagen); Matthias Westphal (University of Hagen and RWI Essen) |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we estimate how having children affects parents’ participation in arts, high- and lowbrow cultural activities, and sports. Identification combines three complementary, wellestablished strategies: (i) an event-study design around first births; (ii) twin births as exogenous shocks to second and third births; and (iii) sex-composition preferences as an exogenous driver of third births. Following first births, average participation falls by 13–54%, with event-study dynamics showing large short-run drops and a slow, incomplete recovery within ten years. We also document pronounced gender heterogeneity: mothers experience larger immediate declines, while fathers are more affected on the extensive margin (any participation). By contrast, effects of second and third births are mixed; when present, they are modest and tend to fade as children age. |
| Keywords: | Cultural participation, artistic activities, fertility, gender |
| JEL: | C36 J13 J16 Z1 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-07-2025 |
| By: | Alan Hammond |
| Abstract: | Brownian Boost is a one-parameter family of stochastic differential games played on the real line in which players spend at rates of their choosing in an ongoing effort to influence the drift of a randomly diffusing point particle~$X$. One or other player is rewarded, at time infinity, according to whether~$X$ tends to plus or minus infinity. Each player's net receipt is the final reward (only for the victor) minus the player's total spend. We characterise and explicitly compute the time-homogeneous Markov-perfect Nash equilibria of Brownian Boost, finding the derivatives of the players' expected payoffs to solve a pair of coupled first-order non-linear ODE. Brownian Boost is a high-noise limit of a two-dimensional family of player-funded tug-of-war games, one of which was studied in~\cite{LostPennies}. We analyse the discrete games, finding them, and Brownian Boost, to exemplify key features studied in the economics literature of tug-of-war initiated by~\cite{HarrisVickers87}: a battlefield region where players spend heavily; stakes that decay rapidly but asymmetrically in distance to the battlefield; and an effect of discouragement that makes equilibria fragile under asymmetric perturbation of incentive. Tug-of-war has a parallel mathematical literature derived from~\cite{PSSW09}, which solved the scaled fair-coin game in a Euclidean domain via the infinity Laplacian PDE. By offering an analytic solution to Brownian Boost, a game that models strategic interaction and resource allocation, we seek to build a bridge between the two tug-of-war literatures. |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2510.07682 |
| By: | Wieczorreck, Sophie; Perst, Florian; Schubart, Constantin |
| Abstract: | Today's professionals are impacted by rapidly changing conditions, making teamwork increasingly important. As a result, psychological safety in teams is becoming more relevant, as it leads to higher performance, successful collaboration, innovation, mutual support and appreciation. The behavior of a team's leader has an impact on the team and its individual members, on the professional environment and on satisfaction. They can create trust and security or weaken or even destroy these through their leadership behavior. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the influence of transformational, transactional, laissez-faire and authoritarian leadership styles on psychological safety using a quantitative online survey and to find out which characteristics have a promoting or inhibiting effect. The results show that transformational and transactional leadership styles have positive effects, while laissez-faire and authoritarian leadership styles have negative effects. Support and individual encouragement show strong positive effects, but transparent communication and the involvement of team members are also essential. Managers, on the other hand, should reduce control and supervision as much as possible. If managers avoid responsibility and decision-making, this also has an inhibiting effect on psychological safety in teams. This results in a large number of actions like support and transparent communication being recommendations for managers. |
| Keywords: | Psychological safety, leadership styles, team dynamic, leadership behavior, team performance, support |
| JEL: | M12 M54 D23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iubhhr:328000 |
| By: | Pipke, David |
| Abstract: | Influential studies by Price and Wolfers (2010) and Pope et al. (2018) document racial bias among NBA referees and suggest that heightened awareness can reduce it. Using an independently assembled player–game dataset for 1988–2025 that links box scores to referee crews, I replicate the original findings and extend them. Racial bias is present in 1988–2007 and largely absent in 2007–2014, reemerges in 2015–2019, and disappears again from 2020 onward. Merging games to county–day measures of Black Lives Matter protest activity, I find lower bias when local protest intensity is higher. These associations are consistent with awareness-driven reductions in discrimination. |
| Date: | 2025–09–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:yg6ap_v1 |