nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2013‒09‒26
two papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon

  1. Competitive Balance Measures in Sports Leagues: The Effects of Variation in Season Length By P Dorian Owen; Nicholas King
  2. Suarez und die "Hand Gottes": Wie fair ist Fußball? By Frieling, Julius; Pohlkamp, Stefanie; Stöver, Jana; Vöpel, Henning

  1. By: P Dorian Owen (University of Otago); Nicholas King (University of Otago)
    Abstract: Appropriate measurement of competitive balance is a cornerstone of the economic analysis of professional sports leagues. We examine the distributional properties of the ratio of standard deviations (RSD) of points percentages, the most widely used measure of competitive balance in the sports economics literature, in comparison with other standard-deviation-based measures. Simulation methods are used to evaluate the effects of changes in season length on the distributions of competitive balance measures for different distributions of the strengths of teams in a league. The popular RSD measure performs as expected only in cases of perfect balance; if there is imbalance in team strengths, its distribution is very sensitive to changes in season length. This has important implications for comparisons of competitive balance for different sports leagues with different numbers of teams and/or games played.
    Keywords: Competitive balance, Idealized standard deviation, Ratio of standard, deviations, Season length, Sports economics, Simulation
    JEL: L83 D63 C63
    Date: 2013–07–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:auncer:2013_4&r=spo
  2. By: Frieling, Julius; Pohlkamp, Stefanie; Stöver, Jana; Vöpel, Henning
    Abstract: Fairness ist einer der zentralen Werte des Sports. Die wiederkehrenden öffentlichen Diskussionen darüber, ob sich die Spieler fair verhalten, weisen darauf hin, dass es ein starkes Bewusstsein für Fairness und deren Bedeutung im Sport gibt. Da das öffentliche Interesse am Fußball sehr groß ist, eignet sich diese Sportart in besonderer Weise für eine Untersuchung der Frage, inwieweit Regeln und Normen faires Verhalten erzeugen. Formale Regeln und informelle Normen prägen das Verhalten der Akteure. Gleichzeitig existieren zwischen Regeln und Normen vielschichtige Wechselwirkungen. Im folgenden Policy Paper wird diskutiert, wie Regeln und Normen grundsätzlich zusammenhängen und ob diese im Fußball geeignet sind, faires Verhalten zu erzeugen. Anhand von Daten für die Bundesliga-Saisons 2007/08 bis 2011/12 wird empirisch gezeigt, von welchen Faktoren faires Verhalten abhängt. --
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwipp:80&r=spo

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