Women’s sports have received much less attention from economists than from other social scientists. This Handbook fills that gap with a comprehensive economic analysis of women’s sports. It also analyzes how the behavior and treatment of female athletes reflect broad economic forces.

The present thesis examines if and to what extent microeconomic theory can explain the observable behavior of individuals in competitive environments. On the basis of self-compiled datasets from (professional) sports competitions as well as a widely broadcasted TV quiz-show two research...