nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2005‒04‒16
four papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal

  1. CAN WE PREDICT THE OUTCOME OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL TOURNAMENTS : THE CASE OF EURO 2000? By Ferda Halicioglu
  2. Do We Need a New Point System in Professional Football Leagues? By Ferda Halicioglu
  3. The Profitability of Winning By JS Armstrong; Fred Collopy
  4. Reputation Effects in Gold Glove Award Voting By Arthur Zillante

  1. By: Ferda Halicioglu (The University of Greenwich, London)
    Abstract: This paper statistically analyses and attempts to predict the most likely winners of the Euro 2000 football tournament on the basis of the seasonal coefficients of variation (CVs) of the end-of-season points, which were computed from the top division final standings of participating countries of Euro 2000. The CV values computed from over ten seasons for the respective countries were used as a sole measurement value to rank the countries and to determine the most likely winners of Euro 2000. According to the three scenarios (long-term, mid-term, and short-term) based on the respective CV values of fifteen countries, France appeared to be the most likely country to win Euro 2000 and was closely followed by Spain.
    Keywords: Football, Ranking, UEFA, Sports forecasts.
    JEL: C40 C49
    Date: 2005–03–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0503008&r=spo
  2. By: Ferda Halicioglu (The University of Greenwich, London)
    Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of point systems on the degree of competition in professional football leagues via the annual coefficient of variation (CV) of end-of-season points. The past, existing and some alternative point systems were applied to a hypothetical football league consisting of eighteen teams to find out changes in the CV value, which is assumed to measure the degree of football competition statistically. On the basis of the computed CV values, it appears that the most competitive football league takes place statistically in which winner gets three, loser one and draws two points.
    Keywords: economics of professional team sports, outcome of uncertainty, professional football leagues, degree of competition, coefficient of variation
    JEL: C40 D40 D81 L83
    Date: 2005–03–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpot:0503004&r=spo
  3. By: JS Armstrong (The Wharton School); Fred Collopy (Case Western Reserve University)
    Abstract: Sports and war metaphors abound in business today. For example, one management book, Thunder in the Sky, by Thomas Cleary, opens with a Chinese saying that translates: “The marketplace is a battlefield. The Asian people view success in the business world as tantamount to victory in battle.” The book advises American executives to do the same. However, such metaphors are misleading. The objective in both sports and war is to beat the competitor. Business, on the other hand, aims to create wealth.
    Keywords: business, profits, winning,
    JEL: A
    Date: 2005–02–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpgt:0502035&r=spo
  4. By: Arthur Zillante (ICES, George Mason University)
    Abstract: Reputation effects have been thought to influence how candidates in an election are viewed by the electorate. Using data from Major League Baseball, I attempt to quantify the effect that reputation plays in voting for the Gold Glove award. While the award is designed to reflect current-year defensive accomplishments, two other hypotheses have been suggested to explain voting behavior. The first is that voters use current-year offensive accomplishments in lieu of defensive accomplishments. The second hypothesis is that voters rely on the past performance of the players when casting their ballots, implying that reputation effects exist in the minds of voters. Results from probit estimation show that while reputation effects appear to have a significant effect on the outcome of the election, current-year offensive accomplishments do not.
    Keywords: Voting behavior, baseball
    JEL: D72
    Date: 2005–02–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0502003&r=spo

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