IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/77431.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Risk Diversification from Revenue Sharing in a Professional Sports League: Measuring Welfare Gains

Author

Listed:
  • Rockerbie, Duane
  • Easton, Stephen

Abstract

Revenue sharing is a common league policy in professional sports leagues. Several motivations for revenue sharing have been explored in the literature, including supporting small market teams, affecting league parity, suppressing player salaries and improving team profitability. We investigate a different motivation. Risk-averse team owners may be able to increase league welfare by using revenue sharing to reduce the variance and affect the skewness of the league distribution of team local revenues. We first determine the extent to which revenue sharing affects these moments in theory, then we attempt to quantify the effects on league welfare for Major League Baseball. Our results suggest that revenue sharing had significant welfare gains, obtained at little cost, that enhance the positive effects noted by other studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Rockerbie, Duane & Easton, Stephen, 2017. "Risk Diversification from Revenue Sharing in a Professional Sports League: Measuring Welfare Gains," MPRA Paper 77431, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:77431
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/77431/1/MPRA_paper_77431.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Kesenne, 2015. "Revenue Sharing and Absolute League Quality; Talent Investment and Talent Allocation," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 62(1), pages 51-58, February.
    2. David G. Surdam, 2007. "A Tale of Two Gate‐Sharing Plans: The National Football League and the National League, 1952‐1956," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(4), pages 931-946, April.
    3. Duane W Rockerbie & Stephen T Easton, 2014. "The Run to the Pennant," Sports Economics, Management and Policy, Springer, edition 127, number 978-1-4614-7885-0, September.
    4. Stefan Kesenne, 2007. "Revenue Sharing and Owner Profits in Professional Team Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(5), pages 519-529, October.
    5. Daniel R. Marburger, 1997. "Gate Revenue Sharing And Luxury Taxes In Professional Sports," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 15(2), pages 114-123, April.
    6. Stefan Kesenne, 2000. "Revenue Sharing and Competitive Balance in Professional Team Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(1), pages 56-65, February.
    7. Anthony C. Krautmann, 2017. "Risk-Averse Team Owners and Players’ Salaries in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(1), pages 19-33, January.
    8. Stefan Szymanski, 2004. "Professional Team Sports Are Only a Game," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 5(2), pages 111-126, May.
    9. Duane W. Rockerbie & Stephen T. Easton, 2010. "The Ebbs and Flows of the Game: Multiple Equilibria in a Sports League Model," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(2), pages 172-185, April.
    10. Joel Maxcy, 2009. "Progressive Revenue Sharing in Major League Baseball: The Effect on Player Transfers and Talent Distribution," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 35(3), pages 275-297, November.
    11. Mehra, Rajnish & Prescott, Edward C., 1985. "The equity premium: A puzzle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 145-161, March.
    12. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Nina Pavcnik, 2007. "Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 39-82, March.
    13. Phillip Miller, 2006. "Revenue Sharing in Sports Leagues: The Effects on Talent Distribution and Competitive Balance," Working Papers 0627, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.
    14. Joel Maxcy, 2004. "Motivating long-term employment contracts: risk management in major league baseball," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 109-120.
    15. James Richard Hill & Nicholas A. Jolly, 2017. "Revenue Sharing and Player Salaries in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(8), pages 831-849, December.
    16. Stephen T. Easton & Duane W. Rockerbie, 2005. "Revenue Sharing, Conjectures, and Scarce Talent in a Sports League Model," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 6(4), pages 359-378, November.
    17. J. A. Mirrlees, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(2), pages 175-208.
    18. Rockerbie, Duane, 2007. "Free Agent Auctions and Revenue Sharing: A Simple Approach," MPRA Paper 2218, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Rodney Fort & James Quirk, 2011. "Optimal Competitive Balance In A Season Ticket League," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(2), pages 464-473, April.
    20. 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.
    21. Rodney Fort & James Quirk, 2010. "Optimal Competitive Balance in Single-Game Ticket Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(6), pages 587-601, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Duane Rockerbie & Stephen Easton, 2018. "Revenue Sharing in Major League Baseball: The Moments That Meant so Much," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Rockerbie, Duane, 2011. "The Invariance Proposition in Baseball: New Evidence," MPRA Paper 55020, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Rockerbie, Duane & Easton, Stephen, 2017. "Revenue Sharing in Professional Sports Leagues as a Hedge for Exchange Rate Risk," MPRA Paper 77428, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Martin Grossmann & Helmut Dietl & Markus Lang, 2010. "Revenue Sharing and Competitive Balance in a Dynamic Contest Model," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 36(1), pages 17-36, February.
    5. Rockerbie, Duane, 2007. "Free Agent Auctions and Revenue Sharing: A Simple Approach," MPRA Paper 2218, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kato, Kazuhiko, 2023. "Effects of a uniform relative emission standard in a professional team sports league," MPRA Paper 117009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Helmut Dietl & Egon Franck & Markus Lang & Alexander Rathke, 2010. "Organizational Differences between U.S. Major Leagues and European Leagues: Implications for Salary Caps," Working Papers 0122, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU).
    8. Michel Cavagnac, 2009. "Revenue Sharing and Competitive Balance When Teams are not Wage Takers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 35(3), pages 299-313, November.
    9. Masaki Fujimoto, 2023. "A Dynamic Analysis of Equal Revenue Sharing and Endogenous Salary Caps in the N-Team Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(5), pages 624-638, June.
    10. Rockerbie, Duane & Easton, Stephen, 2021. "Multiple Equilibria and Unsustainable Runs in Major League Baseball: More Evidence," MPRA Paper 109971, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Martin B. Schmidt, 2021. "The Competitive Returns To The Global Search For Talent: Professional Sports Markets And Foreigners," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 396-419, January.
    12. Rodney Fort, 2015. "Managerial Objectives: A Retrospective on Utility Maximization in Pro Team Sports," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 62(1), pages 75-89, February.
    13. Fort, Rodney & Maxcy, Joel & Diehl, Mark, 2016. "Uncertainty by regulation: Rottenberg׳s invariance principle," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 454-467.
    14. 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.
    15. Helmut M. Dietl & Martin Grossmann & Markus Lang, 2011. "Competitive Balance and Revenue Sharing in Sports Leagues With Utility-Maximizing Teams," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(3), pages 284-308, June.
    16. Helmut M. Dietl & Markus Lang, 2008. "The Effect Of Gate Revenue Sharing On Social Welfare," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(3), pages 448-459, July.
    17. Paul Madden, 2018. "Collective Bargaining in a Basic North American Sports League Model," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1812, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    18. Helmut Dietl & Rodney Fort & Markus Lang, 2011. "International Sports League Comparisons," Working Papers 0144, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU).
    19. Brad R. Humphreys & Thomas J. Miceli, 2019. "The Peculiar Preferences of Sports Fans: Toward a Preference-Based Motivation for the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(6), pages 782-796, August.
    20. Peter J. Sloane, 2015. "The Economics of Professional Football Revisited," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 62(1), pages 1-7, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    revenue sharing; risk aversion; welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:77431. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.