Advances in Sports Economics

Book excerpt: How do we identify the impact of superstar players? Do referees display any bias? What has happened to competitive balance? Why do players move so freely in today's labour market? Do rule-changes influence behaviour? How effective are incentives in encouraging players to exert maximum effort? The data that professional sport generates, which is unparalleled in any other industry, provides a wealth of information to which economists can bring their analytic toolkit to answer these questions and to better understand the mechanics of professional sport. Advances in Sports Economics is a wide-ranging collection of newly commissioned essays that examines the multifaceted field of sports economics in baseball, basketball, cricket, football, Gaelic games, horse racing, rugby and tennis. Both at the professional and amateur level, sport offers economists the opportunity to study the behaviour, choices and outcomes of decisions of players and referees as well as regulators and governments. The contributors range across questions of incentives, rule changes, labour issues, competition structure, gambling, gender equality, match official behaviour and funding to explore the variety of applications that economic analysis can bring to the field.