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Corruption in Professional Sumo: An Update on the Study of Duggan and Levitt

Author

Listed:
  • Helmut Dietl

    (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich)

  • Markus Lang

    (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich)

  • Stephan Werner

    (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich)

Abstract

In the December 2002 issue of the American Economic Review, Mark Duggan and Steven D. Levitt published an article on corruption in professional sumo. In the present paper, we update Duggan and Levitt's study to take into account changes since January 2000. We find strong statistical evidence that corruption is reduced after January 2000 but reappears in the period from 2003 to 2006. In addition, we can show that the non-linearity in the incentive structure disappears from 2000 to 2003 and reappears after 2003. These results confirm the findings of Duggan and Levitt, who suggest that the structure of promotion in rankings gives incentives to the sumo wrestlers to rig matches.

Suggested Citation

  • Helmut Dietl & Markus Lang & Stephan Werner, 2008. "Corruption in Professional Sumo: An Update on the Study of Duggan and Levitt," Working Papers 0085, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU), revised Jun 2009.
    • Handle: RePEc:iso:wpaper:0085
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dan Bernhardt & Steven Heston, 2010. "Point Shaving In College Basketball: A Cautionary Tale For Forensic Economics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 14-25, January.
    2. Brian A. Jacob & Steven D. Levitt, 2003. "Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 843-877.
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    4. 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.
    5. Mark Duggan & Steven D. Levitt, 2002. "Winning Isn't Everything: Corruption in Sumo Wrestling," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1594-1605, December.
    6. Stefano DellaVigna & Eliana La Ferrara, 2010. "Detecting Illegal Arms Trade," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 26-57, November.
    7. Di Tella, Rafael & Schargrodsky, Ernesto, 2003. "The Role of Wages and Auditing during a Crackdown on Corruption in the City of Buenos Aires," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(1), pages 269-292, April.
    8. Justin Wolfers, 2006. "Point Shaving: Corruption in NCAA Basketball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 279-283, May.
    9. Ed Balsdon & Lesley Fong & Mark A. Thayer, 2007. "Corruption in College Basketball? Evidence of Tanking in Postseason Conference Tournaments," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(1), pages 19-38, February.
    10. West, Mark D, 1997. "Legal Rules and Social Norms in Japan's Secret World of Sumo," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(1), pages 165-201, January.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

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    2. Hori, Masahiro & Iwamoto, Koichiro, 2013. "Are yokozuna sacred? : Further evidence on match-rigging in sumo wrestling," CIS Discussion paper series 609, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    3. Brunello, Giorgio & Yamamura, Eiji, 2023. "Desperately Seeking a Japanese Yokozuna," IZA Discussion Papers 16536, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Feddersen, Arne & Humphreys, Brad & Soebbing, Brian, 2012. "Cost Incentives in European Football," Working Papers 2012-13, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    5. Sang-Hyop Lee & Sumner La Croix, 2014. "Does Versatility Matter in Match-Play Sports? Evidence from Sumo Wrestling," Working Papers 201411, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    6. Wladimir Andreff, 2016. "4 Corruption in Sport," Post-Print halshs-01279785, HAL.
    7. Hori, Masahiro & Iwamoto, Koichiro, 2013. "Match-Rigging in Professional Sumo-Elucidation of Incentive Structures and Empirical Analysis-," Economic Review, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 64(2), pages 132-146, April.
    8. Rodney J. Paul & Andrew P. Weinbach, 2011. "Investigating Allegations of Pointshaving in NCAA Basketball Using Actual Sportsbook Betting Percentages," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(4), pages 432-447, August.
    9. Helena Fornwagner, 2017. "Incentives to lose revisited: The NHL and its tournament incentives," Working Papers 2017-07, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    10. Fornwagner, Helena, 2019. "Incentives to lose revisited: The NHL and its tournament incentives," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 75(PB).
    11. Stuart Baumann & Carl Singleton, 2024. "They were robbed! Scoring by the middlemost to attenuate biased judging in boxing," Papers 2402.06594, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    12. Wladimir Andreff, 2016. "4 Corruption in Sport," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01279785, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sumo wrestling; corruption; incentive scheme; social ties; monitoring;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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