IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabre/v36y2015i3p291-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are We Getting Better or Are They Getting Worse? Draft Position, Strength of Schedule, and Competitive Balance in the National Football League

Author

Listed:
  • Tony Caporale
  • Trevor Collier

Abstract

Monopsonistic labor market institutions, such as amateur drafts and free agency restrictions, are often justified by their competitive balance generating properties. In this paper we reexamine the balancing effect of the amateur draft for the National Football League. We extend an earlier treatment of this issue by Grier and Tollison (J Econ Behav Organ 33:136–149, 1994 ) by incorporating the unbalanced scheduling policy of the league, relative team payrolls, and team injury rates into our empirical model. We find that the college draft has a quantitatively strong and statistically significant effect on team performance even when incorporating several significant controls. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Caporale & Trevor Collier, 2015. "Are We Getting Better or Are They Getting Worse? Draft Position, Strength of Schedule, and Competitive Balance in the National Football League," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 291-300, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:36:y:2015:i:3:p:291-300
    DOI: 10.1007/s12122-015-9206-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12122-015-9206-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12122-015-9206-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2001. "Competitive Balance and Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(2), pages 145-167, May.
    2. Craig Depken, 1999. "Free-Agency and the Competitiveness of Major League Baseball," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 14(3), pages 205-217, May.
    3. Simon Rottenberg, 1956. "The Baseball Players' Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(3), pages 242-242.
    4. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    5. Joseph Price & Brian P. Soebbing & David Berri & Brad R. Humphreys, 2010. "Tournament Incentives, League Policy, and NBA Team Performance Revisited," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(2), pages 117-135, April.
    6. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2003. "On the Evolution of Competitive Balance: The Impact of an Increasing Global Search," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(4), pages 692-704, October.
    7. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    8. Cade Massey & Richard H. Thaler, 2013. "The Loser's Curse: Decision Making and Market Efficiency in the National Football League Draft," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1479-1495, July.
    9. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2004. "The Impact of Labor Strikes on Consumer Demand: An Application to Professional Sports," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 344-357, March.
    10. El-Hodiri, Mohamed & Quirk, James, 1971. "An Economic Model of a Professional Sports League," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(6), pages 1302-1319, Nov.-Dec..
    11. James W. Meehan Jr. & Randy A. Nelson & Thomas V. Richardson, 2007. "Competitive Balance and Game Attendance in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(6), pages 563-580, December.
    12. Martin Schmidt & David Berri, 2002. "The impact of the 1981 and 1994-1995 strikes on Major League Baseball attendance: a time-series analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 471-478.
    13. Young Hoon Lee & Rodney Fort, 2005. "Structural Change in MLB Competitive Balance: The Depression, Team Location, and Integration," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(1), pages 158-169, January.
    14. Beck A. Taylor & Justin G. Trogdon, 2002. "Losing to Win: Tournament Incentives in the National Basketball Association," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(1), pages 23-41, January.
    15. Grier, Kevin B. & Tollison, Robert D., 1994. "The rookie draft and competitive balance: The case of professional football," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 293-298, October.
    16. Glenn Knowles & Keith Sherony & Mike Haupert, 1992. "The Demand for Major League Baseball: A Test of the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 36(2), pages 72-80, October.
    17. David H. Richardson, 2000. "Pay, Performance, and Competitive Balance in the National Hockey League," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 26(4), pages 393-417, Fall.
    18. Andrew Larsen & Aju J. Fenn & Erin Leanne Spenner, 2006. "The Impact of Free Agency and the Salary Cap on Competitive Balance in the National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 374-390, November.
    19. R. Alan Bowman & Thomas Ashman & James Lambrinos, 2013. "Prospective measures of competitive balance: application to money lines in major league baseball," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(29), pages 4071-4081, October.
    20. Martin Schmidt, 2001. "Competition in Major League Baseball: the impact expansion," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 21-26.
    21. John Vrooman, 2009. "Theory of the Perfect Game: Competitive Balance in Monopoly Sports Leagues," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 34(1), pages 5-44, February.
    22. Rodney Fort & Young Hoon Lee, 2006. "Stationarity and Major League Baseball Attendance Analysis," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 408-415, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael A. Lapré & Elizabeth M. Palazzolo, 2024. "Does Draft Currency Promote Competitive Balance? An Empirical Investigation of the National Football League 2002–2021," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(7), pages 779-801, October.
    2. Ian Gregory‐Smith, 2021. "Wages And Labor Productivity: Evidence From Injuries In The National Football League," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(2), pages 829-847, April.
    3. Pedro Garcia‐del‐Barrio & Pablo Agnese, 2023. "To comply or not to comply? How a UEFA wage‐to‐revenue requirement might affect the sport and managerial performance of soccer clubs," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 767-786, March.
    4. Daniel Read & Aaron C.T. Smith & James Skinner, 2021. "A Comparative Analysis of Competitive Balance Between a Closed and an Open League in Rugby League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(8), pages 871-892, December.
    5. Garcia-del-Barrio, Pedro & Agnese, Pablo, 2021. "Does Compliance with Financial Fair Play Rules Improve the Football Clubs' Sport Performance and Their Chances to Reach UEFA Competitions?," IZA Discussion Papers 14474, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fort, Rodney & Maxcy, Joel & Diehl, Mark, 2016. "Uncertainty by regulation: Rottenberg׳s invariance principle," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 454-467.
    2. Carlos Gomez-Gonzalez & Julio del Corral & R. Todd Jewell & Jorge García-Unanue & Cornel Nesseler, 2019. "A Prospective Analysis of Competitive Balance Levels in Major League Soccer," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(1), pages 175-190, February.
    3. Rodney Fort & Young Hoon Lee, 2007. "Structural Change, Competitive Balance, And The Rest Of The Major Leagues," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(3), pages 519-532, July.
    4. Young Lee & Rodney Fort, 2008. "Attendance and the Uncertainty-of-Outcome Hypothesis in Baseball," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 33(4), pages 281-295, December.
    5. Geoffrey N Tuck & Athol R Whitten, 2013. "Lead Us Not into Tanktation: A Simulation Modelling Approach to Gain Insights into Incentives for Sporting Teams to Tank," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-10, November.
    6. Robert J. Lemke & Matthew Leonard & Kelebogile Tlhokwane, 2010. "Estimating Attendance at Major League Baseball Games for the 2007 Season," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(3), pages 316-348, June.
    7. Brian Mills & Rodney Fort, 2014. "League-Level Attendance And Outcome Uncertainty In U.S. Pro Sports Leagues," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 205-218, January.
    8. Ehrlich, Justin & Potter, Joel & Sanders, Shane, 2024. "Luck in high-stakes firm lottery allocation: A natural experimental test of Coasean efficiency and invariance in a prominent sport finance setting," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    9. Brian M. Mills & Rodney Fort, 2018. "Team-Level Time Series Analysis in MLB, the NBA, and the NHL," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(7), pages 911-933, October.
    10. Young Hoon Lee, 2009. "The Impact of Postseason Restructuring on the Competitive Balance and Fan Demand in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(3), pages 219-235, June.
    11. Meletakos, Panagiotis & Chatzicharistos, Dimitrios & Apostolidis, Nikolaos & Manasis, Vasilios & Bayios, Ioannis, 2016. "Foreign players and competitive balance in Greek basketball and handball championships," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 391-401.
    12. R. Alan Bowman & James Lambrinos & Thomas Ashman, 2013. "Competitive Balance in the Eyes of the Sports Fan," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(5), pages 498-520, October.
    13. Hojun Sung & Brian M. Mills & Younghoon Lee, 2022. "Moments of Competitive Balance in Major League Soccer," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(3), pages 329-354, April.
    14. Young Hoon Lee & Yongdai Kim & Sara Kim, 2019. "A Bias-Corrected Estimator of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(4), pages 479-508, May.
    15. Martin Schmidt, 2006. "On the evolution of competition: an application of nonlinear tests," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 1-12.
    16. Andrew Larsen & Aju J. Fenn & Erin Leanne Spenner, 2006. "The Impact of Free Agency and the Salary Cap on Competitive Balance in the National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 374-390, November.
    17. Young Hoon Lee & Yongdai Kim & Sara Kim, 2018. "Unbiased Estimation of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues with Unbalanced Schedules," Working Papers 1801, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy).
    18. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "The Economic Design of Sporting Contests," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Comparative Economics of Sport, chapter 1, pages 1-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    19. Allen R. Sanderson & John J. Siegfried, 2003. "Thinking about Competitive Balance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(4), pages 255-279, November.
    20. Anthony C. Krautmann & Young Hoon Lee & Kevin Quinn, 2011. "Playoff Uncertainty and Pennant Races," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(5), pages 495-514, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Coase theorem; Competitive balance; N.F.L. draft; C23; D22; D23; L83;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:36:y:2015:i:3:p:291-300. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.