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Referee home bias due to social pressure. Evidence from Spanish football

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Author Info

  • Andrés Picazo-Tadeo

    (Universidad de Valencia)

  • Francisco Gónzalez-Gómez

    () (Universidad de Granada)

  • Jorge Guardiola Wanden-Berghe

    (Universidad de Granada)

Abstract

This paper analyses referee home bias due to social pressure with data from the matches played in the First Division of the Spanish football league between the 2002/03 and 2009/10 seasons. The aim is to assess the behaviour of the referee in relation to two decisions, namely free kicks awarded and players booked. The variables used to explain referee behaviour are the number of spectators attending matches, the percentage occupation of the stadium and the existence or not of running tracks, all of which are intended to represent social pressure, in addition to referee experience. Furthermore, two control variables concerning ball possession and shots at goal are included. Regarding methodology, two random effects panel data regression models are estimated. The first model explains the difference in the number of home team fouls and away team fouls, while the second explains the difference in yellow and red cards shown to local and away teams. The results obtained cannot confirm, at least in the period under analysis, that Spanish football referees have been biased in favour of the home team when it comes to awarding free kicks. However, once a free kick has been awarded, there does appear to be a referee home bias in the punishment a player receives for committing a foul. These findings suggest that when there is a large crowd in the stadium, the referee tends to find it easier to book away team players than home players. A sensible hypothesis that could explain this result is that the time the referee has to make a decision does affect the final outcome. While referees are not biased when it comes to awarding a free kick, they are when given more time to make a decision, allowing social pressure to work in favour of the home time.

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File URL: ftp://147.156.210.157/RePEc/pdf/eec_1119.pdf
File Function: First version, 2011
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia in its series Working Papers with number 1119.

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Length: 19 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:eec:wpaper:1119

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Related research

Keywords: Social pressure; crowd effect; referee home bias; sports economics;

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

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  1. Guido Ascari & Philippe Gagnepain, 2007. "Evaluating Rent Dissipation in the Spanish Football Industry," Post-Print hal-00622841, HAL.
  2. Peter Dawson & Stephen Dobson, 2009. "The Influence of Social Pressure and Nationality on Individual Decisions: Evidence from the Behaviour of Referees," NCER Working Paper Series 46, National Centre for Econometric Research.
  3. Luis Garicano & Ignacio Palacios-Huerta & Canice Prendergast, 2001. "Favoritism Under Social Pressure," Working Papers 2001-16, Brown University, Department of Economics.
  4. Peter Dawson & Stephen Dobson & John Goddard & John Wilson, 2007. "Are football referees really biased and inconsistent?: evidence on the incidence of disciplinary sanction in the English Premier League," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 170(1), pages 231-250.
  5. Koning, Ruud H., 2003. "Home advantage in speed skating: evidence from individual data," Research Report 03F38, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
  6. Rickman, Neil & Witt, Robert, 2005. "Favouritism and Financial Incentives: A Natural Experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 4968, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  7. Pettersson-Lidbom, Per & Priks, Mikael, 2010. "Behavior under social pressure: Empty Italian stadiums and referee bias," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 212-214, August.
  8. Julio del Corral & Carlos Pestana Barros & Juan Prieto-Rodriguez, 2007. "The Determinants of Soccer Player Substitutions: a Survival Analysis of the Spanish Soccer League," Working Papers 2007/04, Department of Economics at the School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon..
  9. Francisco González Gómez & Andrés J. Picazo Tadeo, 2008. "Can we be satisfied with our football team? Evidence from spanish professional football," ThE Papers 08/11, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
  10. Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2008. "Are Subjective Evaluations Biased by Social Factors or Connections? An Econometric Analysis of Soccer Referee Decisions," MPRA Paper 15819, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  11. Matthias Sutter & Martin G. Kocher, . "Favoritism of agents – The case of referees’ home bias," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2002-28, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
  12. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Diego Comin, 2009. "Testing the Commitment Hypothesis in Contractual Settings: Evidence from Soccer," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 5(4), pages 1.
  13. Thomas J. Dohmen, 2008. "The Influence Of Social Forces: Evidence From The Behavior Of Football Referees," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(3), pages 411-424, 07.
  14. Gagnepain, Philippe & Ascari, Guido, . "Spanish Football," Open Access publications from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid info:hdl:10016/5036, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
  15. Babatunde Buraimo & David Forrest & Robert Simmons, 2010. "The 12th man?: refereeing bias in English and German soccer," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(2), pages 431-449.
  16. Gregory A. Trandel & Joel G. Maxcy, 2011. "Adjusting Winning-Percentage Standard Deviations and a Measure of Competitive Balance for Home Advantage," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1.
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  1. Referee home bias
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-07-29 14:14:00

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