Sports Economics Essay
Guidelines
Essays are to be two to three double-spaced pages (with one-inch margins) and regular-sized
font. An essay that includes the same example as another student’s essay will not be permitted
(in the unlikely event this occurs we will address the issue together). While students may work
together to understand the material and to proofread one another’s work, each must submit an
essay independently.
Essays must be submitted to www.turnitin.com by 1pm on 5/31 (the last day of class), and a hard
copy must be turned in during class. You must submit your paper by the deadline. Turnitin.com
does not allow late submissions.
The website address is www.turnitin.com.
The class ID is: 5153692
The enrollment password is: sports_4500
You must register on turnitin.com in order to submit your essay. When you submit your essay,
you have the ability to see the originality report. Any essay that includes more than 25% of
another’s words, whether cited or not, will not be accepted. If this is an issue for you, please
send an e-mail to me promptly.
Note: Please name your documents by the convention: last name_4500.
Also, please note that you cannot submit multiple files. You must have your text and references
all in the same document, as turnitin.com does not allow multiple submissions. You may handwrite any graphs that you want to include in your essay.
Finally, please be sure to check your essay for grammar, spelling, and to ensure it has an
introduction and a hypothesis and a conclusion. Also include your list of references. Remember
that your goal should be to convince me you have learned something about economic theory.
Anything that detracts from that outcome should be avoided.
Please choose one of the following topics for your essay.
1.
Do you think fans prefer unbalanced absolute quality or balanced relative quality? Justify
your response using economic rationale, and include one example in support of your
argument.
2.
Which do you think is more relevant for addressing competitive imbalance issues: withinseason or between-season variation? Justify your response using economic rationale, and
include one example in support of your argument.
3.
Do you think a team would earn greater profit through pricing tickets in the inelastic
portion of demand and maximizing profit on complementary goods, or through the price
discrimination tactic of two-part pricing (for example using personal seat licenses)? Use
economic analysis to support your answer and cite the data you would need in order to
determine which pricing scheme is most profitable.
4.
Using the concept of a competitive equilibrium in the market for sports talent, explain the
success of a small-market team like the Oklahoma City Thunder. Is the Thunder’s success
contradictory to the idea of a winning percent equilibrium? Justify your response using
economic rationale.
5.
Do you think Rottenberg’s invariance principle will hold true in the presence of strategic
behavior and long-term contracts? Justify your response using economic rationale, and
include one example in support of your argument.