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Sports Rules As Common Pool Resources: A Better Way to Respond to Doping

Author

Listed:
  • Edward Castronova

    (Department of Telecommunications, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, U.S.A.)

  • Gert G. Wagner

    (Department of Economics and Law, Berlin University of Technology, 10623 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

In sports, as in all other fields of human life, there are written rules and then there are unwritten rules. An example of the former in soccer is the offside rule: a pass only is legal if at least two defenders are between a pass-receiver and the goal when the pass is made. An example of the latter is what might be called the “Injury Truce”: if team A has an injured player and kicks out of bounds in order to stop play for medical treatment, after the time out team B kicks out of bounds itself to return possession to team A. Players who violate either rule face negative consequences, the only difference being whether the consequence is enforced by the referee or not. For the offside rule, the referee grants a free kick for the other team. For the injury truce, violation leads to rough play on the field and stigma off the field within the crowd of spectators. Both consequences are negative and both cause the rule to be followed. Athletes are humans, and their personal incentives are not described entirely by the formal rules in a game. Informal rules matter.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward Castronova & Gert G. Wagner, 2009. "Sports Rules As Common Pool Resources: A Better Way to Respond to Doping," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 341-344, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v39:y:2009:i:3:p:341-344
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Eber, 2012. "Doping and Anti-doping Measures," Chapters, in: Wolfgang Maennig & Andrew Zimbalist (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Mega Sporting Events, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    doping; economics of sport; illegal activities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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