IDENTIFYING SUBJECTIVE VALUE IN WOMEN’S COLLEGE GOLF RECRUITING REGARDLESS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS

College athletics have grown into a major industry and athletic departments are pushing coaches to recruit the top talent. To recruit golfers, college coaches depend on multiple ranking systems. These systems are bias towards more expensive, national tournaments over inexpensive, state tournaments. In response, players who come from a lower socio-economic class will have fewer financial aid opportunities than someone from a higher economic class. Analyzing junior girls’ golf statistics, has led to the creation of an objective methodology to compare golfers without regard to socio-economic imbalances

Collective Production and Incentives

We analyse incentive problems in collective production environments where contributors are compensated according to their observed and ranked efforts. This provides incentives to the contributors to choose first best efforts

Determining the Success of NCAA Basketball Teams through Team Characteristics

Every year much of the nation becomes engulfed in the NCAA basketball postseason tournament more affectionately known as “March Madness.” The tournament has received the name because of the ability for any team to win a single game and advance to the next round. The purpose of this study is to determine whether concrete statistical measures can be used to predict the final outcome of the tournament. The data collected in the study include 13 independent variables ranging from the 2003-2004 season up until the current 2009-2010 season. Different tests were run in an attempt to achieve the most accurate predictive model. First, the data were input into Excel and ordinary least squares regressions were run for each year. Then the data were compiled into one file and an ordinary least squares regression was run on that collection of data in Excel. Next, the data were input into Minitab and a stepwise regression was run in order to keep only the significant independent variables. Following that, a regression analysis was run in Minitab. The coefficients from that regression analysis were input into a file with the 2009-2010 data in an attempt to test the model’s results against the actual results. All of the models developed, except one for the year 2005-2006, were determined to be significant. There were 6 significant independent variables determined. The final results showed that although the model developed through the study was significant, the ability to accurately predict the outcomes is very difficult

Sabotage in Contests: A Survey

A contest is a situation in which individuals expend irretrievable resources to win valuable prize(s). ‘Sabotage’ is a deliberate and costly act of damaging a rival’s' likelihood of winning the contest. Sabotage can be observed in, e.g., sports, war, promotion tournaments, political or marketing campaigns. In this article, we provide a model and various perspectives on such sabotage activities and review the economics literature analyzing the act of sabotage in contests. We discuss the theories and evidence highlighting the means of sabotage, why sabotage occurs, and the effects of sabotage on individual players and on overall welfare, along with possible mechanisms to reduce sabotage. We note that most sabotage activities are aimed at the ablest player, the possibility of sabotage reduces productive effort exerted by the players, and sabotage may lessen the effectiveness of public policies, such as affirmative action, or information revelation in contests. We discuss various policies that a designer may employ to counteract sabotage activities. We conclude by pointing out some areas of future research