IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/acb/agenda/v18y2011i1p85-100.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Peculiar Economics of Government Policy towards Sport

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Pomfret
  • John K. Wilson

Abstract

Professional team sports enjoy subsidies from government, as well as regulatory exemption from standards that apply to other sectors of the economy. The Australian sports economics literature has, however, focused on competitive balance, with few studies examining government policies. This paper examines government policies such as subsidies, mega-event bidding, salary caps and player draft systems. We argue that the peculiar nature of professional sports provides some justification for such distinctive government policies. However, there is need for greater transparency, better-directed funding, and genuine public debate on some of these policies to enable considered evaluation of their benefits and costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Pomfret & John K. Wilson, 2011. "The Peculiar Economics of Government Policy towards Sport," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 18(1), pages 85-100.
    • Handle: RePEc:acb:agenda:v:18:y:2011:i:1:p:85-100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p115201/pdf/ch085.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John K. Wilson & Richard Pomfret, 2009. "Government Subsidies for Professional Team Sports in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 42(3), pages 264-275, September.
    2. Wladimir Andreff & Stefan Szymanski, 2006. "Handbook on the Economics of Sport," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00270122, HAL.
    3. Wladimir Andreff & Stefan Szymanski (ed.), 2006. "Handbook on the Economics of Sport," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3274.
    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. Georg Stadtmann & Dirk Czarnitzki, 2002. "Uncertainty of outcome versus reputation: Empirical evidence for the First German Football Division," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 101-112.
    6. Liam J. A. Lenten, 2009. "Unobserved Components in Competitive Balance and Match Attendances in the Australian Football League, 1945–2005: Where is all the Action Happening?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(269), pages 181-196, June.
    7. Michael R. Donihue & David W. Findlay & Peter W. Newberry, 2007. "An Analysis of Attendance at Major League Baseball Spring Training Games," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(1), pages 39-61, February.
    8. James A Giesecke & John R Madden, 2007. "The Sydney Olympics, seven years on: an ex-post dynamic CGE assessment," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-168, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    9. Simon Rottenberg, 1956. "The Baseball Players' Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(3), pages 242-242.
    10. repec:bla:ausecr:v:39:y:2006:i:4:p:420-427 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Stefan Szymanski & Bastien Drut, 2020. "The Private Benefit of Public Funding: The FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, and Attendance at Host Country League Soccer," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(7), pages 723-745, October.
    2. 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.

    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. 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.
    2. Dorian Owen, 2014. "Measurement of competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome," Chapters, in: John Goddard & Peter Sloane (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football, chapter 3, pages 41-59, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Budzinski, Oliver & Feddersen, Arne, 2015. "Grundlagen der Sportnachfrage: Theorie und Empirie der Einflussfaktoren auf die Zuschauernachfrage," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 94, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    4. 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.
    5. Wladimir Andreff, 2011. "Some comparative economics of the organization of sports: Competition and regulation in north American vs. European professional team sports leagues," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00677436, HAL.
    6. Marco Di Domizio & Raul Caruso, 2015. "Hooliganism and Demand for Football in Italy: Attendance and Counterviolence Policy Evaluation," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 16(2), pages 123-137, May.
    7. Wladimir Andreff, 2011. "Some comparative economics of the organization of sports: competition and regulation in north American vs. European professional team sports leagues," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 8(1), pages 3-27, June.
    8. Andreff, Wladimir, 2007. "Régulation et institutions en économie du sport," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 1.
    9. Nicholas King & P. Dorian Owen & Rick Audas, 2012. "Playoff Uncertainty, Match Uncertainty and Attendance at Australian National Rugby League Matches," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(281), pages 262-277, June.
    10. Marco Di Domizio & Mattia Palombini, 2011. "Competitività orizzontale e verticale nel ciclismo professionistico: alcune riflessioni sul circuito pro tour," Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport, Centro di diritto e business dello Sport, vol. 6(3), pages 35-54, Febbraio.
    11. Dietl, Helmut M. & Duschl, Tobias & Lang, Markus, 2011. "Executive Pay Regulation: What Regulators, Shareholders, and Managers Can Learn from Major Sports Leagues," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 1-30, August.
    12. Rappai Gábor & Fűrész Diána Ivett, 2018. "Handling heteroskedasticity in labour demand functions of athletes," Croatian Review of Economic, Business and Social Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 4(2), pages 47-56, November.
    13. Christian Gjersing Nielsen & Rasmus K. Storm & Tor Georg Jakobsen, 2019. "The impact of English Premier League broadcasts on Danish spectator demand: a small league perspective," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 89(6), pages 633-653, August.
    14. Valenti, Maurizio & Scelles, Nicolas & Morrow, Stephen, 2020. "The determinants of stadium attendance in elite women’s football: Evidence from the UEFA Women's Champions League," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 509-520.
    15. Jean-François Bourg & Jean-Jacques Gouguet, 2010. "The Political Economy of Professional Sport," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13177.
    16. Wladimir Andreff, 2011. "Some comparative economics of the organization of sports: Competition and regulation in north American vs. European professional team sports leagues," Post-Print halshs-00677436, HAL.
    17. Helmut Dietl & Tobias Duschl & Markus Lang, 2010. "Gehaltsobergrenzen und Luxussteuern: Erkenntnisse aus dem professionellen Mannschaftssport," Working Papers 0039, University of Zurich, Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA).
    18. Patrice Bouvet, 2020. "L'économie du sport professionnel par équipe en Europe : production, monétisation, déficit et régulation Patrice BOUVET," Working Papers hal-02515012, HAL.
    19. Meshael Batarfi & James Reade, 2021. "Why are We So Good At Football, and They So Bad? Institutions and National Footballing Performance," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 63-80, February.
    20. Budzinski, Oliver & Müller-Kock, Anika, 2016. "Market power and media revenue allocation in professonal sports: The case of formula one," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 102, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.

    More about this item

    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:acb:agenda:v:18:y:2011:i:1:p:85-100. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feanuau.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.