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Teams’ Reponses to Changed Incentives: Evidence from Rugby’s Six Nations Championship

Author

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  • Vincent (Vincent Peter) Hogan
  • Patrick Massey

Abstract

The paper analyses teams’ responses to rule changes designed to encourage more entertaining play in Rugby Union’s Six Nations Championship. We use a data set of all scores in the competition since 1883 to analyse the impact of rule changes on teams’ strategic decisions. We find that increasing the points for a try leads to more tries per match. We also find evidence that teams may be prepared to concede penalties, which are worth fewer points in order to prevent more costly tries. The switch to a winner takes all format in 1994 also led to more tries being scored. Unlike most other major rugby competitions, the Six Nations does not award bonus league points for scoring a certain number of tries and we consider whether this would increase try scoring. Our results may have practical applications given ongoing concerns about a decline in try scoring in the Six Nations.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent (Vincent Peter) Hogan & Patrick Massey, 2015. "Teams’ Reponses to Changed Incentives: Evidence from Rugby’s Six Nations Championship," Working Papers 201518, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201518
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/7152
    File Function: First version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
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    Cited by:

    1. Federico Fioravanti & Fernando Tohmé & Fernando Delbianco & Alejandro Neme, 2021. "Effort of rugby teams according to the bonus point system: a theoretical and empirical analysis," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 50(2), pages 447-474, June.
    2. Robert Butler & Liam J. A. Lenten & Patrick Massey, 2020. "Bonus incentives and team effort levels: Evidence from the “Field”," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 67(5), pages 539-550, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sports economics;

    JEL classification:

    • Z2 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics

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