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Contests With Doping

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  • Dmitry Ryvkin

Abstract

Doping, or the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs, is an epidemic problem in sports ranging from the Olympics to high school athletics. This article presents a theoretical model of doping use in a contest environment. The authors show that, under fairly general conditions, the minimal frequency of random testing to prevent doping use increases in the number of contestants. The presence of even a small penalty, in addition to expulsion from the contest, makes random testing more effective, especially in large contests. For a given testing frequency, the minimal penalty to prevent doping can be nonmonotonic in the number of contestants.

Suggested Citation

  • Dmitry Ryvkin, 2013. "Contests With Doping," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(3), pages 253-275, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:14:y:2013:i:3:p:253-275
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002511427320
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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Optimal doping testing
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-07-02 13:59:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Glenn Dutcher & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Dmitry Ryvkin, 2016. "Don't hate the player, hate the game: Uncovering the foundations of cheating in contests," Working Papers 2016-29, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    2. Volker Robeck, 2014. "Professional Cycling and the Fight against Doping," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201456, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    3. 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.
    4. David Hirschmann, 2017. "May Increasing Doping Sanctions Discourage Entry to the Competition?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(7), pages 720-736, October.
    5. Wu, Qin & Bayer, Ralph-C & Lenten, Liam J.A., 2020. "Conditional Pension Funds to Combat Cheating in Sporting Contests: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Daniel Westmattelmann & Marius Sprenger & Sascha Hokamp & Gerhard Schewe, 2020. "Money matters: The impact of prize money on doping behaviour," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 688-703, October.
    7. Qin Wu & Raph C-Bayer & Liam Lenten, 2016. "A Comparison of Anti-Doping Measures in Sporting Contests," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2016-11, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    8. Kjetil Haugen, 2023. "The doping dilemma is not the only dilemma in sport," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 40-48.
    9. Edward Cartwright, 2019. "Guilt Aversion and Reciprocity in the Performance-Enhancing Drug Game," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(4), pages 535-555, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    doping; contest; entry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • 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

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