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Are Athletes Doped? Some Theoretical Arguments And Empirical Evidence

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  • ALEXANDER DILGER
  • BERND FRICK
  • FRANK TOLSDORF

Abstract

Sports fans all over the world have recently witnessed an increasing number of spectacular doping cases, leading to considerable annoyance in the public. However, our knowledge regarding the prevalence of doping is still quite limited, leading some people to speculate that (nearly) all professional athletes are doped and possibly even have to be doped to be good enough to compete successfully in highly selective tournaments. On the other hand, particularly representatives of the sports associations pretend that since the number of positively tested athletes remains small, there are only a few “black sheep,” while in general, the world of sport is clean and fair. In the recent past, a number of theoretical models have been developed that can be empirically tested, which, in the end, may lead to the formulation of policy recommendations (ranging from higher sanctions to legalizing doping). We review the more important models and present anecdotal as well as some quantitative empirical evidence on the prevalence as well as the determinants of doping. (JEL K42, L83, M52)

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander Dilger & Bernd Frick & Frank Tolsdorf, 2007. "Are Athletes Doped? Some Theoretical Arguments And Empirical Evidence," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 25(4), pages 604-615, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:25:y:2007:i:4:p:604-615
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2007.00076.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Dilger, Alexander, 2021. "Cheating alone and in teams," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 1/2021, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    2. Tom Coupé & Olivier Gergaud, 2013. "Suspicious Blood and Performance in Professional Cycling," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(5), pages 546-559, October.
    3. Dmitry Ryvkin, 2013. "Contests With Doping," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(3), pages 253-275, June.
    4. Holger Strulik, 2012. "Riding High: Success in Sports and the Rise of Doping Cultures," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(2), pages 539-574, June.
    5. Müller, Daniel, 2013. "The Doping Threshold in Sport Contests," Working papers 2013/05, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    6. Ziebarth, Nicolas R. & Wagner, Gert G., 2013. "Top?Down vs. Bottom?Up: The Long?Term Impact of Government Ideology and Personal Experience on Values," IZA Discussion Papers 7279, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Tom Coupe & Olivier Gergaud, 2011. "Suspicious Blood and Performance in the 2010 Tour de France," Discussion Papers 43, Kyiv School of Economics.
    8. Dilger, Alexander, 2017. "Doping in teams: A simple decision theoretic model [Doping in Teams: Ein einfaches entscheidungstheoretisches Modell]," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 6/2017, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    9. Frick, Bernd, 2012. "Die Entlohnung von Fußball-Profis: Ist die vielfach kritisierte 'Gehaltsexplosion' ökonomisch erklärbar?," Edition HWWI: Chapters, in: Büch, Martin-Peter & Maennig, Wolfgang & Schulke, Hans-Jürgen (ed.), Sport und Sportgroßveranstaltungen in Europa - zwischen Zentralstaat und Regionen, volume 4, pages 79-110, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    10. Deepak Dhayanithy, 2013. "Patterns Of Ped2 Test Sanctions In Professional Sports – Baseline And Implications For Research," Working papers 122, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    11. Edward Cartwright, 2019. "Guilt Aversion and Reciprocity in the Performance-Enhancing Drug Game," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(4), pages 535-555, May.
    12. Volker Robeck, 2014. "Professional Cycling and the Fight against Doping," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201456, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    13. Mohan, Vijay, 2019. "On the use of blockchain-based mechanisms to tackle academic misconduct," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    14. Vijay Mohan & Bharat Hazari, 2016. "Cheating in Contests," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(7), pages 736-747, October.
    15. Nicolas Eber, 2012. "Doping and Anti-doping Measures," Chapters, in: Wolfgang Maennig & Andrew Zimbalist (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Mega Sporting Events, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Andreas Goetsch & Christian Salzmann, 2018. "The Role of Ex Post Audits in Doping Enforcement," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(7), pages 960-976, October.
    17. David Hirschmann, 2017. "May Increasing Doping Sanctions Discourage Entry to the Competition?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(7), pages 720-736, October.
    18. Wu, Qin & Bayer, Ralph-C & Lenten, Liam J.A., 2020. "Conditional Pension Funds to Combat Cheating in Sporting Contests: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Dimant, Eugen & Deutscher, Christian, 2014. "The Economics of Corruption in Sports – The Special Case of Doping," MPRA Paper 60566, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    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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