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Salary Caps and Competitive Balance in Professional Sports Leagues

Author

Listed:
  • Evan S. Totty
  • Mark F. Owens

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of salary caps on competitive balance in professional sports leagues in the United States. We find no evidence to suggest that salary caps improve competitive balance, as measured by the variation in wins between the best and worst teams in a league in a given year, in any of the major sports leagues. Further, depending on the measure of competitive balance, it appears that salary caps decreased competitive balance in the NBA, which has specific components that differ from those of the NHL and NFL. The results also suggest that revenue sharing arrangements promote competitive balance in a manner that is consistent with economic theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Evan S. Totty & Mark F. Owens, 2011. "Salary Caps and Competitive Balance in Professional Sports Leagues," Journal for Economic Educators, Middle Tennessee State University, Business and Economic Research Center, vol. 11(2), pages 46-56, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:mts:jrnlee:v:11:y:2011:i:2:p:46-56
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    File URL: http://frank.mtsu.edu/~jee/2011/fall/5_MS1011-pp45to56.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2001. "Competitive Balance and Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(2), pages 145-167, May.
    2. Craig Depken, 1999. "Free-Agency and the Competitiveness of Major League Baseball," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 14(3), pages 205-217, May.
    3. Dietl Helmut M & Lang Markus & Rathke Alexander, 2009. "The Effect of Salary Caps in Professional Team Sports on Social Welfare," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, April.
    4. Martin Schmidt & David Berri, 2002. "Competitive Balance and Market Size in Major League Baseball: A Response to Baseball's Blue Ribbon Panel," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 21(1), pages 41-54, August.
    5. Rodney Fort & James Quirk, 1995. "Cross-subsidization, Incentives, and Outcomes in Professional Team Sports Leagues," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(3), pages 1265-1299, September.
    6. P. Owen & Michael Ryan & Clayton Weatherston, 2007. "Measuring Competitive Balance in Professional Team Sports Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 31(4), pages 289-302, December.
    7. Andrew Larsen & Aju J. Fenn & Erin Leanne Spenner, 2006. "The Impact of Free Agency and the Salary Cap on Competitive Balance in the National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 374-390, November.
    8. David J. Berri & Stacey L. Brook & Bernd Frick & Aju J. Fenn & Roberto Vicente-Mayoral, 2005. "The Short Supply of Tall People: Competitive Imbalance and the National Basketball Association," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 1029-1041, December.
    9. Martin Schmidt, 2001. "Competition in Major League Baseball: the impact expansion," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 21-26.
    10. Brad R. Humphreys, 2002. "Alternative Measures of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 133-148, May.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Travis, 2020. "Competitive Balance in the National Hockey League after Unrestricted Free Agency and the Salary Cap," MPRA Paper 108400, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Antonio Avila-Cano & Amparo Ruiz-Sepulveda & Francisco Triguero-Ruiz, 2021. "Identifying the Maximum Concentration of Results in Bilateral Sports Competitions," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-19, June.
    3. Tobias Berger & Frank Daumann, 2021. "Anchoring bias in the evaluation of basketball players: A closer look at NBA draft decision‐making," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(5), pages 1248-1262, July.
    4. Carlos Gomez-Gonzalez & Julio del Corral & R. Todd Jewell & Jorge García-Unanue & Cornel Nesseler, 2019. "A Prospective Analysis of Competitive Balance Levels in Major League Soccer," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(1), pages 175-190, February.
    5. Dorian Owen & Caitlin Owen, 2017. "Simulation Evidence on Herfindahl-Hirschman Indices as Measures of Competitive Balance," Working Papers 1715, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2017.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    salary caps; competitive balance; free agency; standard deviation; Herfindahl- Hirschman Index;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

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