In an important paper, Price, Remer, & Stone (2012) introduce one manifestation of referee bias called “close” bias – the idea being that because close games are more valuable, referees might officiate to keep games close. Using 990 observations from the 2011-12 National Basketball Association (NBA) season and 442 observations from the 2010 and 2011 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) seasons, we test conceptual models of the impact of television coverage on close bias. Our empirical results that the absolute score differential is about two points less for nationally televised NBA games and about three points less for nationally televised WNBA games, even after accounting for differences in team strength. Our results confirm and extend the earlier findings of Price, Remer, & Stone (2012).

Resumen

En un importante artículo, Price, Remer y Stone (2012) introducen una manifestación del sesgo arbitral llamada sesgo de "proximidad", el cual se refiere a que, dado que los partidos con marcadores ajustados son más valiosos, los árbitros podrían actuar intencionadamente para mantenerlos así. En nuestro estudio, y tras el análisis de 990 partidos de baloncesto de la temporada 2011-12 en la NBA, y de 442 partidos de las temporadas 2010 y 2011 en la WNBA, testamos varios modelos conceptuales sobre el impacto de la cobertura televisiva sobre el sesgo de proximidad. Los resultados indican que la diferencia absoluta en el marcador entre los equipos es alrededor de dos puntos menor para los partidos televisados a nivel nacional en la NBA, y sobre tres puntos menor para la WNBA, considerando las diferencias de potencial entre los equipos. De este modo, nuestros resultados confirman y extienden los hallazgos de Price, Remer y Stone (2012).

http://dx.doi.org/10.5232/ricyde2014.03503

----------------------------------------------------------------------

References/referencias

Arkes, J. & Martínez, J. A. (2011). Finally, evidence for a momentum effect in the NBA. Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports 7 (3), Article 13.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2202/1559-0410.1304

Buraimo, B. (2008). Stadium attendance and television audience demand in English League Football. Managerial and Decision Economics, 29, 513-23.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mde.1421

Buraimo, B. & Simmons, R. (2009). A tale of two audiences: Spectators, television viewers and outcome uncertainty in Spanish football. Journal of Economics and Business, 61, 326-28.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconbus.2008.10.002

Forrest, D.; Simmons, R., & Buraimo, B. (2005). Outcome uncertainty and the couch potato audience. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 52, 641-61.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.2005.00360.x

Grant, A. & Graeme, R. (2008). Does television crowd out spectators? New evidence from the Scottish Premier League. Journal of Sports Economics, 9, 592-605.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1527002508321458

Groot, L. (2009). Competitive balance in team sports: The scoring context, referees, and overtime. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 165, 384-400.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1628/093245609789471961

Kent, R. A.; Caudill, S. B., & Mixon, F. G., Jr. (2013). Rules changes and competitive balance in European professional soccer: Evidence from an event study approach. Applied Economics Letters, 2, 1,109-1,112.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2013.791010

King, N.; Owen, P. D., & Audas, R. (2012). Playoff uncertainty, match uncertainty and attendance at Australian National Rugby League matches. Economic Record, 88, 262-277.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2011.00778.x

Lee, Y. H. & Fort, R. (2008). Attendance and the uncertainty-of-outcome hypothesis in baseball. Review of Industrial Organization, 33, 281-295.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11151-008-9193-9

Mixon, F. G., Jr.; Gibson, M. T., & Upadhyaya, K. P. (2003). Has legislative television changed legislator behavior? C-SPAN2 and the frequency of Senate filibustering. Public Choice, 115, 139-162.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1022873227439

Paul, R.; Humphreys, B. R., & Weinbach, A. (2012). Uncertainty of outcome and attendance in college football: Evidence from four conferences. Economic and Labour Relations Review, 23, 69-82.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/103530461202300206

Peel, D. & Thomas, D. (1988). Outcome uncertainty and the demand for football: An analysis of match attendance in the English Football League. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 3, 242-249.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1988.tb01049.x

Price, J.; Remer, M., & Stone, D. F. (2012). Subperfect game: Profitable biases of NBA referees. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 21, 271-300.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9134.2011.00325.x

Steiger, J.H., & Fouladi, R.T. (1992). R2: A computer program for interval estimation, power calculation, and hypothesis testing for the squared multiple correlation. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 4, 581–582.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03203611

----------------------------------------------------------------