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Why are Americans Addicted to Baseball? An Empirical Analysis of Fandom in Korea and the U.S

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Author Info
Trenton Smith
Young H. Lee () (School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University)

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Abstract

Theories of rational addiction posit that certain habit -forming goods "characterized by an increasing marginal utility of consumption "generate predictable dynamic patterns of consumer behavior. It has been suggested that attendance at sporting events represents an example of such a good, as evidenced by the pricing strategies of commercial sports interests. In this essay, we provide new evidence in support of rational addiction for the case of Major League Baseball, but fail to find such support in data from the Korean Professional Baseball League. We then review the scientific literature on sports fans from the perspective of human behavioral ecology and propose a theory of endogenous habit formation among sports fans that could explain our findings.

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File URL: http://www.ses.wsu.edu/PDFFiles/WorkingPapers/fandom051606.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function: First version, 2006
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University in its series Working Papers with number 2006-05.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: May 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wsu:wpaper:tgsmith-3

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Related research
Keywords: Attendance Demand; Habit Formation; Baseball Addiction; Fan Psychology; Testosterone;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions
D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search, Learning, and Information
L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Recreation; Tourism

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. O'Guinn, Thomas C & Shrum, L J, 1997. " The Role of Television in the Construction of Consumer Reality," Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(4), pages 278-94, March.
  2. Newey, Whitney K & West, Kenneth D, 1987. "A Simple, Positive Semi-definite, Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(3), pages 703-08, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Rodney Fort, 2004. "Inelastic sports pricing," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 87-94. [Downloadable!]
  4. Becker, Gary S & Grossman, Michael & Murphy, Kevin M, 1991. "Rational Addiction and the Effect of Price on Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 237-41, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Marc Poitras, 2006. "Do New Major League Ballparks Pay for Themselves?," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(5), pages 2275-2300, September. [Downloadable!]
  6. Orphanides, Athanasios & Zervos, David, 1998. "Myopia and Addictive Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 75-91, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Smith, Trenton G. & Tasnadi, Attila, 2007. "A theory of natural addiction," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 316-344, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Orphanides, Athanasios & Zervos, David, 1995. "Rational Addiction with Learning and Regret," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(4), pages 739-58, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. B. Douglas Bernheim & Antonio Rangel, 2002. "Addiction and Cue-Conditioned Cognitive Processes," NBER Working Papers 9329, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. David Laibson, 2001. "A Cue-Theory Of Consumption," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(1), pages 81-119, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Dong C. Won & Young H. Lee, 2008. "Optimal dynamic pricing for sports games with habitual attendance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(8), pages 639-655. [Downloadable!]
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