This study examines the determinants of Major League Soccer team attendance during the league's recent era of growth. Estimates indicate that regular-season on-field performance is positively associated with attendance, but the returns to success are diminishing. Positive novelty effects are...

During the early days of professional baseball, the dominant major leagues imposed a “reserve clause” designed to limit player wages by restricting competition for labor. Entry into the market by rival leagues challenged the incumbent monopsony cartel's ability to restrict compensation....

Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens has been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs to boost his performance. If Clemens used ergogenic aids consistent with the accusations of use, then unusual changes in productivity may be evident in his performance record. Two previous studies...

Standard neoclassical principal-agent theory predicts that stricter monitoring should reduce employee shirking from principal desires; however, recent analyses indicate that social aspects of principal-agent relationships may result in monitoring “crowding out” disciplinary effects. From...

This study investigates determinants of revenue in North America's four major professional sports leagues. Estimates reveal that revenue is positively associated with on-field success in baseball (MLB), basketball (NBA), and hockey (NHL), but not in football (NFL). The returns to winning are not...

Sports teams frequently fire and hire managers when they experience losing. However, determining managerial responsibility for player performance is difficult to measure. This study examines how major-league baseball players perform under different managers and estimates that managers have...

Most US states have adopted movie production incentives with the intention to stimulate state economic growth through film industry investment and related economic activity. Previous cross-state studies of film incentives have not identified a stimulus effect; however, the zero-sum nature of...

Movie production incentives (MPI) are a popular economic development strategy employed by US states. Film subsidies are intended to encourage external investment into an untapped industry that spills over onto complementary industries to generate economic growth through a multiplier. Despite...

This study examines reasons for the declining share of revenue going to Major League Baseball players. Though the players' union and team owners have proposed competing explanations, the phenomenon has not received any rigorous academic study. Economic theories for the similar decline of labor's...