Television ratings provide a measure of the number of viewers for every NFL football game, however these ratings do not reveal the viewers' motivation for watching the game. Using Nielsen ratings for locally televised NFL football games, this study investigates the determinants of NFL...

This paper examines the demand for attendance at National Football League (NFL) games using a rational addiction model to test the hypothesis that professional football displays the properties of a habit-forming good. Rational addiction theory suggests that past and future consumption play a...

Although cigarette producers knew that nicotine was addictive in the early 1960's, this information was not publicly known until the 1979 Surgeon General's Report. This study finds that the release of addiction information caused a structural shift in cigarette demand and estimates the value of...

This study offers the opportunity to examine the welfare contribution of the Minnesota Vikings to Minnesota households in the context of a credible threat of team relocation. We find the credibility of the threat of relocation is essential to providing unbiased estimates of welfare. This study...

The issue of public financing for a professional sports team is one that has seen vigorous debate in the state of Minnesota. This study offers the opportunity to examine the welfare contribution of the Minnesota Vikings to Minnesota households in the context of a credible threat to team...

This article examines the competitive balance of the National Football League (NFL) using Gini coefficients and the deviations of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The authors present upper bounds for both measures that are constructed using actual playing schedules. They model competitive balance...

This article demonstrates theoretically that, given a casual relationship exists from league parity to fan interest, as large-market teams myopically outbid small-market teams for talent there is potential for league parity to be underprovided. In this model, league parity is treated as a public...

Many economics majors write a senior thesis. Although this experience can be the pinnacle of their education, publication is not the common standard for undergraduates. The authors describe four approaches that have allowed students to get their work published: (1) identify a topic, such as...

Much of the sport economics literature is able to demonstrate that teams have downward-sloping demand curves that imply market power, but there has been no formal test of this hypothesis. This paper provides an initial empirical test of market power for the NFL during the 1995 to 1999 seasons....