The short run demand for major league baseball

Conclusions In this paper an attempt was made to analyze those factors which determine the short run demand for baseball. This work represents the first of its kind in the baseball industry. The regression results provide new insight in assessing the specific variables which enter into a fan's decision to attend a particular baseball game. These results should be of considerable importance to team owners and league officials who attempt to maximize interest and therefore attendance in professional baseball.     

The Rise (and Fall) of the Arena Football League

After 22 seasons of competition, the Arena Football League (AFL) suspended operations in 2009. Play resumed in 2010, but attendance has declined dramatically. We examine the determinants of the demand for tickets to AFL games using data from the league’s first incarnation from 1987 to 2008; we find that the honeymoon effect for first-generation AFL teams was very short. Teams lost about 1,700 fans per game on average in their second year of operation, a sizeable loss given league average of 11,000 fans. Our results also suggest that Major League Baseball (MLB) serves as a direct competitor to the AFL, and this offers insights into why the AFL has struggled in its second incarnation (2010–2012).     

Factors Affecting Attendance of Major League Baseball: Revisited

Many studies have been conducted analyzing factors affecting the demand for Major League Baseball (MLB) games. This paper revisits the factors affecting the long-run demand for attendance, employing an unbalanced panel technique for all home games played over the period from 1979 to 2004 seasons for the 12 non-expansion, non-adjustment teams from MLB. Combining both teams and every home game played during 1979–2004 seasons, dimensions provide better understanding of long-run demand for attendance. The study finds that time factors, fan interest, city characteristics, team’s performance, and fan’s attendance behavior have strong influences on the game attendance.     

U.S. professional football game-day attendance

This paper uses Tobit analysis to estimate a model which explains game-day attendance at professional football games in the U.S. Several potential determinants of attendance are accounted for in the model. The data used in the analysis pertain to 392 regular season games played during the 1986 and 1987 National Football League seasons. The estimation results suggest that attendance is greater when the opposing teams—particularly, the home team—are of higher quality. There is also evidence that games expected to be close in score are more heavily attended than those that are not. Rainy conditions reduce fan turnout, although warmer temperatures lessen the negative effect of precipitation. Higher ticket prices lead to lower attendance, and fans are apparently indifferent to whether games are played either indoors or outdoors.     

Determinants of Attendance in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League: Role of Winning,Scoring, and Fighting

Attendance in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League was studied for the 2009 to 2010 season. This junior league, part of the Canadian Hockey League system, serves as a development league for teenage players who attempt to parlay their participation in this league into a professional career. Fan demand for this level of hockey is found to be sensitive to the success of the home team and to exhibit normal consumer responses to weekday and monthly effects with weekends being more popular and attendance increasing throughout the season toward the playoffs. On-ice factors such as scoring, a proxy for excitement, and fighting are not shown to have a significant effect on attendance.     

Racial discrimination and long-term contracts in major league baseball

The preponderance of studies on salary determination for major league baseball players suggests that significant pay differences do not exist between races. The possibility exists, however, that salary discrimination may be disguised by a racially biased distribution of long-term contracts. This study suggests that nonwhites are not victimized by long-term contract discrimination, which is consistent with the findings of others on pay discrimination in major league baseball.     

The Cost of Discrimination: A Study of Major League Baseball

This article seeks to determine whether discriminators perform differently than nondiscriminators, whether that performance difference serves to inhibit discrimination, and, if so, how the process works. It investigates an area with abundant data on both the racial mix of participants and firm performance—major league baseball. A sizeable and statistically significant relationship between winning and the presence of black players in the starting lineup is found to hold for the early years of the 1950s and to decline, as expected, as the average number of black ballplayers on major league rosters increased. However, a puzzle emerges in the fact that a significantly slower rate of integration was pursued in the American League (AL) than in the National League (NL) despite there being nearly identical associations between black players and winning in each. The most likely solution to that puzzle is that fan preferences differed—each black player on an AL team appears to have reduced attendance by significantly more than he would have on a NL team. Examination also reveals that when substitute players are considered separately, the positive association between the number of blacks employed and winning is much weaker, whereas the negative association between black ballplayers and attendance is the same. Not coincidentally, black players made up a significantly smaller proportion of substitutes than they did of starters throughout the entire period.     

The currency ratios 1920–80: A re-examination

Conclusions This study has analyzed the long run determinants of the ratio of currency to M1 and M2 over the period 1920–80. For both ratios, its results confirm Cagan's well-known findings on the importance of deposit yields and tax rates. Unlike Cagan, who did not attempt to construct a proxy variable for the ratio of currency-intensive to total transactions, the ratio of spending on nondurables and services to total bank clearings was used in this study as such a proxy and found to be a better explanatory variable than expected real per capita income. At times, movements in this variable were an important contributor to changes in both money ratios. In addition, movements in the ratio of teenagers to total population, a variable not considered by Cagan, had a role in explaining the 1961–73 rise in C/M1.The finding that alterations in the tax rates change the money multiplier, and hence the money stock, in the opposite direction serves as an offset to the argument advanced recently that tax cuts, since they may increase the demand for money as well as (more familiarly) the rate of desired spending, may actually be contractionary.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not those of the Congressional Research Service or the Library of Congress.     

Evidence of panel stationarity from Chinese provincial and regional income

The aim of this paper is to examine whether Chinese provincial and regional real GDP and per capita real GDP are panel stationary for the period 1952–2003. We allow for multiple structural breaks based on a technique developed by Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. [Carrion-i-Silvestre, J. L., Barrio-Castro, T, D., & Lopez-Bazo, E. (2005). Breaking the panels: An application to the GDP per capita. Econometrics Journal, 8, 159–175]. Allowing for at most five structural breaks, we find that for 67% of the provinces, per capita real GDP is stationary; while we only find stationarity of real GDP for 17% of the provinces. However, when we extend the analysis to panel data models, we find statistically strong evidence of panel stationarity of Chinese provincial and regional income.     

From Linear Fuel Switching to Multiple Cooking Strategies: A Critique and Alternative to the Energy Ladder Model

Promoting sustainable development requires evaluating the technical and policy options that will facilitate the adoption and use of energy efficient and less polluting cooking stoves and practices. The transition from traditional to modern fuels and devices has been explained by the “energy ladder” model that suggests that with increasing affluence, a progression is expected from traditional biomass fuels to more advanced and less polluting fuels. In this paper we evaluate the energy ladder model utilizing data from a four-year (1992–96) case study of a village in Mexico and from a large-scale survey from four states of Mexico. We show that an alternate “multiple fuel” model of stove and fuel management based on the observed pattern of household accumulation of energy options, rather than the simple progression depicted in the traditional energy ladder scenario, more accurately depicts cooking fuel use patterns in rural households. The “multiple fuel” model integrates four factors demonstrated to be essential in household decision making under conditions of resource scarcity or uncertainty: (a) economics of fuel and stove type and access conditions to fuels, (b) technical characteristics of cookstoves and cooking practices; (c) cultural preferences; and (d) health impacts. This model also allows better estimates of the expected fuelwood demand and indoor air pollution in rural households.     

Team promotion in early major league baseball and the origin of the closed sports league

I argue that a quasi team-promotion system similar to European professional sports leagues once existed in the US, contrary to common perceptions. The first American pro team sport was baseball. From the creation of the first major league in 1876 to the early 1890s, entry was common, occurring primarily by the “promotion” of clubs in operation the previous season. The informal system ended abruptly after an 1892 merger that formed the prototype closed monopoly sports league. Empirical analysis indicates that the cessation of entry reduced competitive balance, and that in their initial year promoted teams outperformed new start-ups. While historians have recognized the elimination of between-league competition as an underlying motive for the monopoly merger, the simultaneous elimination of club entry and competition for league membership has gone virtually unnoticed.     

A simple multisector model with six sectors of production estimation and simulation results for the 1950–1968 period

Summary In this article a simple multisector model for the Netherlands is presented with six sectors of production. Estimation and simulation results are based on input-output data for the period 1950–1968. Simple log-linear equations (containing both relative price factors and scale factors) are used to describe the demand for (intermediary and primary) factors of production and the demand for final output (including private investment). Sectoral product prices and wage rates are determined within the model. This applies to the generation of disposable income of households as well. Using this simple multisector model, actual economic developments during the 1955–1968 period can be simulated in a reasonably satisfactory way.I am indebted to Professor S.K. Kuipers of the University of Groningen, Professor J. Muysken of the University of Limburg and an anonymous referee for their advice and their critical remarks. The Netherlands Organisation for the Advancement of Pure Scientific Research subsidized the multisector modelling project, of which this article summarizes the results (grant number 46–73).     

The Economic Consequences of Professional Sports Strikes and Lockouts

The National Basketball Association (NBA) lockout of 1998-1999 resulted in the cancellation of a significant number of games. According to the claims made by proponents of sports-driven economic growth, cities with NBA franchises should experience significant negative economic losses from this work stoppage because of the lost spending in and around basketball arenas during this event. Although it will be several years before adequate data exist for a careful ex post evaluation of the effects of the lockout, an examination of the impact of past work stoppages in professional football and basketball can shed some light on the potential impact of the NBA lockout as well as the viability of professional sports as engines of economic growth in cities. The parameter estimates from a reduced-form empirical model of the determination of real per capita income in 37 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) over the period 1969-1996 suggest that prior work stoppages in professional football and baseball had no impact on the economies of cities with franchises. Further, the departure of professional basketball from cities had no impact on their economies in the following years. These results refute the idea that attracting professional sports franchises represents a viable economic development strategy.     

Interindustry effects of productivity growth in Japan: 1960–2000

Combining conventional sectoral growth accounting and the static open input–output price model, we analyze the sources of growth of product prices in Japan during the period 1960–2000. Using the input–output framework, we take into account not only the effects of factor costs and productivity within a sector, but also their impacts outside of the sector. We find that Japan's deflation in the 1990s was characterized by low growth of wage rates, low productivity growth, and a low rate of return on capital. Until 1990, productivity improvements compensated for factor cost pressures on output price, especially the rapid growth of labor cost. In contrast, during the 1990s, decreasing rates of return on capital, not productivity improvements, canceled out the inflationary effect of wage growth. J. Japanese Int. Economies 19 (4) (2005) 568–585.     

Can IT be Japan's savior?

This paper constructs a multi-sector model to take explicit account of the very sharp change in the relative price between non-IT and IT goods. The model is calibrated to the Japanese economy, and its solution path from 1990 on is compared to Japan's macroeconomic performance in the 1990s. Compared to the one-sector analysis of Japan in the 1990s [Hayashi, F., Prescott, E.C., 2002. The 1990s in Japan: A lost decade. Rev. Econ. Dynam. 5, 206–235], our model does slightly better or just as well in accounting for Japan's output slump and does worse in accounting for the capital–output ratio. We also show that, to revive a 2% long-term growth in per capita GDP, Japan needs to direct 10% of private total hours to the IT sector. J. Japanese Int. Economies 19 (4) (2005) 543–567.     

Risk Aversion and Wages: Evidence from the Baseball Labor Market

We develop a bargaining model to assess how workers and employers might allocate wages inter-temporally in order to cope with risk. We then apply this model to 106 long-term contracts for major league baseball players’ services. Most of these agreements not only smooth employee compensation over time but suggest greater relative risk aversion for teams than players. Compared to the wages they might pay to retain these players on a succession of one-year contracts, teams often pay a premium on longer-term agreements to protect against market volatility and potential inability to replace a key player on the open market.     

A re-examination of the demand for money in Nigeria

Summary and Conclusion This paper reexamines the demand for money in Nigeria and finds the real income and the expected rate of inflation to be important independent variables that explain over 80 percent of the variation in the real cash balance. The study shows that, in view of the low per capita income of Nigerians, permanent income and measure income are largely the same. An important finding of this study is that, because their price level is (in large part) exogenously determined, the monetary authorities in Nigeria should be more desirous of following the constant growth rate rule. A very substantial part of the country's export (that is, oil) is especially prone to inflationary pressures due to the ease with which international inflation can be transmitted. Since the authorities can control money stock, this ‘rule’ is indicated from both the theoretical and the empirical standpoint.     

An aggregate import demand function for greece

This study estimates the aggregate import demand function for Greece using annual data for the period 1951–92. There are two methodological novelties in this paper. The authors find that the variables used in the aggregate import demand function are not stationary but are cointegrated. Thus, a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among these variables during the period under study. The price elasticity is found to be close to unity in the long run. The cross-price elasticity is also found to be close to unity. Import demand is found to be highly income elastic in the long run. This implies that with economic growth, ceteris paribus, the trade deficit for Greece is likely to get worse.     

Stadiums and Scheduling: Measuring Deadweight Losses in the Victorian Football League, 1920–70

Over a 50 year period, Australian Rules football's major league, the Victorian Football League, did not always use its largest and best-equipped stadium for regular season games between its most popular teams or schedule those teams to play twice in a regular season. We calculate deadweight losses from the use of capital goods (stadiums) and effects of match scheduling in this professional sports league. Such analysis has not been attempted previously because of the absence of a counterfactual. The welfare losses were significant but not sufficient to threaten the survival of a distance-protected cartel.     

Factor decomposition of sub-provincial fiscal disparities in China

With the help of fiscal statistics on sub-provincial public finances in the second half of the 1990s, this paper explores the hotly debated issues pertaining to fiscal disparities in China during this period, and the various factors driving the changes in fiscal disparities. Among them are economic factors (e.g., GDP per capita, economic structure), and institutional factors (e.g., urban–rural dichotomy, ethnic issues).We adopt Morduch and Sicular's general, regression-based approach to decompose fiscal disparity with respect to per capita fiscal expenditure (Morduch & Sicular, 2002). The empirical results indicate that among all the statistically significant factors, GDP per capita and urban–rural dichotomy are the two most important variables that affects fiscal disparities, with a total contribution of 60%. Other relatively important factors are economic structure and population density. Several features of fiscal expenditure in China identified by our empirical findings together with their corresponding policy implications are discussed.