Heterogeneous Contestants and Effort Provision in Tournaments - an Empirical Investigation with Professional Sports Data

Johannes Berger and Petra Nieken

Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems from Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich

Abstract: We empirically investigate if tournaments between heterogeneous contestants are less intense. To test our hypotheses we use professional sports data from the TOYOTA Handball-Bundesliga, the major handball league in Germany. Using either differences in betting odds or rankings to measure ability differences, our results support standard tournament theory as we find a highly significant negative impact of the matchup's heterogeneity on joint teame efforts. However, further analysis shows that this overall decrease in efforts is almost entirely driven by the reaction of the ex-ante favorite team.

Keywords: tournament; heterogeneity; incentives; sportseconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J33 J41 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: Heterogeneous Contestants and the Intensity of Tournaments (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:trf:wpaper:325

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