nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2015‒09‒26
two papers chosen by
João Carlos Correia Leitão
Universidade da Beira Interior

  1. Exit Discrimination in the NBA. Is there a Bias against Foreigners? By Peter A. Groothuis; James Richard Hill
  2. L’impact des dépenses publiques en sport sur les médailles olympiques: une analyse économétrique By Vincent Boucher; Bernard Fortin; Paul Blais-Morisset

  1. By: Peter A. Groothuis; James Richard Hill
    Abstract: Using a panel of National Basketball Association players from 1989 through 2013, we analyze the determinants of career length in the league. In our analysis we include performance, the race of the player and nationality of origin to determine their importance in determining career length. First we find that the performance is an important determinant of career length and that the race of the player does not determine career suggesting that there is no race based exit discrimination. We do find, however, that foreign-born players have shorter careers than do American-born players holding performance constant. In particular we find that foreign players who did not play college basketball in the United States have a higher probability of exit than foreign players who played college ball in the United States. Key Words: National Basketball Association, discrimination, and professional sports.
    JEL: L83
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:15-10&r=all
  2. By: Vincent Boucher; Bernard Fortin; Paul Blais-Morisset
    Abstract: Each year, a significant portion of government spending is devoted in professional or amateur sports. Some analysts argue that these investments contribute significantly to the success of a country at the Olympics. We present an econometric analysis of the number of medals won at the Olympics. We introduce public sports investment as a potentially important factor influencing the number of medals won by a country. Our approach allows to control for the unobservable heterogeneity of countries participating in the Olympics. To our knowledge, we provide the first model of Olympic success using a count data model for panel, estimated using instrumental variables and capturing time-invariant characteristics of nations. According to our selected specifications, a country with mean characteristics should have increased its public sports investment  by 72 to 94 million dollars, ceteris paribus, to obtain an additional medal at London Summer Olympics in 2012. Chaque année, une part significative des dépenses gouvernementales est consacrée au sport de niveau professionnel ou amateur. Certains analystes affirment que ces investissements contribuent fortement au succès d’un pays aux Jeux olympiques (JO). Nous présentons une analyse économétrique du nombre de médailles obtenues aux JO. Nous introduisons l’investissement public en sport comme facteur potentiellement important du nombre de médailles remportées par un pays, en prenant soin de contrôler pour l’hétérogénéité inobservable des pays participants aux JO. Nous présentons, à notre connaissance, la première modélisation du succès olympique utilisant des spécifications de comptage (count data model) en panel estimées à l’aide de variables instrumentales et captant les caractéristiques individuelles et invariantes des nations. Selon les spécifications du modèle retenues, un pays aux caractéristiques moyennes aurait dû accroître son investissement de 72 à 94 millions de dollars, ceteris paribus, afin d’obtenir une médaille supplémentaire aux JO d’été de Londres en 2012
    Keywords: Cost of Olympic medals, Poisson model, negative binomial model, zero-inflated count model, panel model with endogenous variables, Jeux olympiques, coût des médailles olympiques, modèle de Poisson, modèle binomial négatif, modèle de comptage à inflation de zéros, modèle panel avec variables endogènes
    JEL: C16 C23 C25 L83
    Date: 2015–09–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2015s-39&r=all

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