FiT Publishing

This paper explores the use of final offer interest arbitration (FOA) in Major League Baseball (MLB) and whether arbitrated salaries differ meaningfully from private settlements. MLB provides an excellent environment to analyze FOA because it is common practice for eligible players and their teams to announce official intended arbitration figures well in advance of hearings but ultimately privately negotiate a contract in the interim. This allows for consideration of the bounded arbitrated salary environment even when a hearing is avoided. Results reaffirm the findings of Burgess and...Read more

Quantile regression provides sports economists with a powerful research tool. Unlike least squares, it is not tied to restrictive assumptions about the distribution of the error term, which makes it particularly valuable in settings with highly skewed distributions, like sports labor markets. It allows investigators to check for heteroskedasticity and to avoid censored variable bias. Researchers can use it simulate the distribution of incomes or profits, not just their mean values. Still, few sports economists use quantile regression, and, when used, it is frequently misinterpreted. This...Read more

Previous research has revealed a motivational effect of professional sports on amateur sport participation. However, research that attempted to analyze whether this motivational effect indeed transfers into observable behavior is scarce and inconsistent. Therefore, this paper intends to analyze whether the individually perceived relevance of professional sports causally increases the frequency of amateur sport participation. To test this hypothesis, an instrumental variable approach is employed using primary data of N=863 German amateur triathletes. The estimated models provide evidence...Read more

This paper investigates the determinants of game-day attendance in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) from 2001 to 2007. We include measures of league-level uncertainty and game uncertainty for two rivals at the same time in a quantile regression model. The results support the hypothesis of outcome uncertainties. Closer wins by the competing teams within a league and a smaller gap in terms of the winning percentage between two teams induces more outcome uncertainty, and consequently leads to higher attendance. Moreover, the results of the quantile regression show that these...Read more

There have been a host of empirical papers studying the returns to skill in professional golf (e.g., Alexander & Kern, 2005; Callan & Thomas, 2007; Moy & Liaw, 1998; Rishe, 2001; Shmanske, 1992, 2000, 2008). None of these studies, however, carefully considers the skewed distribution of earnings in professional golf. This paper uses quantile regression to better handle the skewness and outlier values found in PGA earnings data. Using data from the PGA for the years 2004 to 2007 results of quantile regressions show that the returns to skills—such as putting and driving accuracy—...Read more