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The Effect of Luxury Taxes on Competitive Balance, Club Profits, and Social Welfare in Sports Leagues
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Abstract
This paper provides a game-theoretic model of a professional sports league and analyzes the effect of luxury taxes on competitive balance, club profits and social welfare. We show that a luxury tax increases aggregate salary payments in the league as well as produces a more balanced league. Moreover, a higher tax rate increases the profits of large-market clubs, whereas the profits of small-market clubs only increase if the tax rate is not set inadequately high. Finally, we show that social welfare increases with a luxury tax.Sports League, Luxury Tax, Social Welfare, Competitive Balance