Does Economic Inequality Impact the Number of Arrests in NFL Stadia?

J. Jobu Babin, Jessica Harriger-Lin and Alice Melkumian
Additional contact information
Jessica Harriger-Lin: Western Illinois University
Alice Melkumian: Western Illinois University

Journal of Economic Insight, 2021, vol. 47, issue 1, 21-51

Abstract: This paper assesses income inequality between markets as a factor in the arrest rates at NFL stadia over five years. Using two novel measures, we find that as the difference in economic inequality between team markets increases, so does the expected number of fan arrests at NFL games. Our results are robust across several specifications and inequality measures as we control for game-time factors, metropolitan economic characteristics, behavioral aspects of fan expectations and rivalry, ticket prices and alcohol, and other unobservable aspects of home stadia in a fixed-effects environment. We conclude that as access to professional sporting events increasingly becomes the domain of the wealthy, so does criminally offensive behavior that goes beyond alcohol-fueled "crimes of passion" - the consequence of wealth-driven friction between visiting spectators and home team fans.

JEL-codes: D91 H80 Z21 Z29 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mve:journl:v:47:y:2021:i:1:p:21-51

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Insight is currently edited by Christopher Douglas and Joshua Lewer

More articles in Journal of Economic Insight from Missouri Valley Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Cullen Goenner ().