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Austrian themes, data, and sports economics

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  • Stephen Shmanske

Abstract

This paper uses data from Major League Baseball and themes from Moneyball by Michael Lewis to empirically illustrate Kirznerian entrepreneurship. While Kirzner envisioned competition in markets for profit, the sports economics literature shows that sporting competition has things in common with market competition. This is important because a strength of sports economics, namely, the abundant data, can help overcome a perceived weakness of Austrian economics, namely, the lack of empirical content. This paper describes and empirically confirms how certain front office decision makers of the Oakland Athletics were alert to opportunities that were being overlooked by other baseball executives. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Shmanske, 2007. "Austrian themes, data, and sports economics," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 11-24, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:20:y:2007:i:1:p:11-24
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-006-0002-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Armen A. Alchian, 1950. "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 211-211.
    2. Scully, Gerald W, 1974. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 915-930, December.
    3. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    4. Stephen Hall & Stefan Szymanski & Andrew S. Zimbalist, 2002. "Testing Causality Between Team Performance and Payroll," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 149-168, May.
    5. Jahn K. Hakes & Raymond D. Sauer, 2006. "An Economic Evaluation of the Moneyball Hypothesis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 173-186, Summer.
    6. Brian L. Goff & Robert E. McCormick & Robert D. Tollison, 2002. "Racial Integration as an Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Sports Leagues," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 16-26, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ryan H. Murphy, 2021. "Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik, The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 337-340, June.
    2. Christopher Coyne & Justin Isaacs & Jeremy Schwartz & Anthony Carilli, 2007. "Put me in, Coach, I’m ready to play," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(4), pages 237-246, December.

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