Should football fans pay for security? Effects of a security fee

Christian J. Sander and Stefan Thiem

Research in Economics, 2023, vol. 77, issue 1, 122-130

Abstract: There is a lively debate on whether football fans should pay a security fee to finance police activities. This paper investigates the price effect on the demand for tickets in a dynamic setting, by considering two subgroups of spectators, namely fans and hooligans. We analyze a situation in which the demand from each subgroup causes a negative social externality for members of the other group but a positive one for members of the same group. We show that charging a security fee may start a dynamic process, leading to fewer fans and more hooligans attending matches and thus, counterintuitively to even more violence. Therefore, the present study provides an argument to refrain from charging a security fee. As an alternative economic solution, we discuss the strategy of outpricing hooligans.

Keywords: Hooliganism; Mob-goods; Security fee; Football; Violence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D H Z (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reecon:v:77:y:2023:i:1:p:122-130

DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2023.01.006

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