nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2011‒02‒12
three papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon

  1. Were Major League Baseball Doubleheaders a Mistake? By Layson, Stephen; Rhodes, M. Taylor
  2. Information and Efficiency: Goal Arrival in Soccer Betting By Karen Croxson; J. James Reade
  3. Local Development Benefits from Staging Global Events: Achieving the Local Development Legacy from 2012 - A Peer Review of the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy for East London By OECD

  1. By: Layson, Stephen (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Rhodes, M. Taylor (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics)
    Abstract: This paper uses daily Major League Baseball (MLB) data from 1938 to 2009 as well annual MLB data from 1920 to 2009 to estimate the effects of doubleheaders on attendance. The annual data over various sub-samples from 1920-2009 indicate that the number of doubleheaders have either a negative or an insignificant effect on annual attendance. The daily data from 1938-2009 show that doubleheaders have a very positive effect on attendance on the day of the doubleheaders but that this is substantially offset by reduced attendance at single games 3 days surrounding doubleheaders. This leads us to question the widespread use of doubleheaders.
    Keywords: sports; attendance
    JEL: D12 L83
    Date: 2011–02–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2011_005&r=spo
  2. By: Karen Croxson; J. James Reade
    Abstract: In an efficient market news is incorporated into prices rapidly and completely. Attempts to test for this in financial markets have been undermined by the possibility of information leakage unobserved by the econometrician. An alternative is to switch to laboratory conditions, at the price of some artificiality. Potentially, sports betting markets offer a superior way forward: assets have terminal values and news can break remarkably cleanly, as when a goal is scored in soccer. We exploit this context to test for efficiency, applying a novel identification strategy to high-frequency data. On our evidence, prices update swiftly and fully.
    Keywords: Information, market efficiency, gambling
    JEL: G14 D0 C01
    Date: 2011–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:11-01&r=spo
  3. By: OECD
    Abstract: London 2012 is set to be one the most ambitious Olympic Games ever to have taken place. Already a successful global city London has set itself a unique challenge – not simply to deliver a successful Olympic Games but to regenerate its most socio-economically challenged area of the city. The boroughs which will host 2012 are amongst the most deprived areas in the United Kingdom. The aim from the preparation of the bid was to address this long term challenge. Everyone involved in the delivery of 2012 and the economic development of London is under no illusion that simply by hosting the Olympics a century of deprivation will be eradicated. But accelerating 30-50 years of regeneration and infrastructure investment can create new economic opportunity.
    Date: 2011–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2011/1-en&r=spo

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