Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket
A significant body of theoretical literature has argued that popular interest in sporting contests between teams is heavily influenced by how difficult it is to predict the result ex-ante. Empirical research has, however, been unable to reach a consensus on the magnitude of uncertainty of outcome on...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50946/ |
| _version_ | 1848798374956892160 |
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| author | Sacheti, Abhinav Gregory-Smith, Ian Paton, David |
| author_facet | Sacheti, Abhinav Gregory-Smith, Ian Paton, David |
| author_sort | Sacheti, Abhinav |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | A significant body of theoretical literature has argued that popular interest in sporting contests between teams is heavily influenced by how difficult it is to predict the result ex-ante. Empirical research has, however, been unable to reach a consensus on the magnitude of uncertainty of outcome on demand. In this article, we seek to resolve this impasse by distinguishing between uncertainty of outcome in the short run and uncertainty of outcome in the long run. We also show that it is important to control for the independent effect of absolute team strength when testing the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. Using data on over 380 Test cricket matches played in England, Australia and New Zealand since 1980, we find that short-run uncertainty of outcome has a significant impact on attendance demand and that absolute team strength has better explanatory power for attendance demand than does long-run uncertainty of outcome. Our results suggest some policy implications for the management and organization of international cricket. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:18:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-50946 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:18:46Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-509462020-05-04T16:45:36Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50946/ Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket Sacheti, Abhinav Gregory-Smith, Ian Paton, David A significant body of theoretical literature has argued that popular interest in sporting contests between teams is heavily influenced by how difficult it is to predict the result ex-ante. Empirical research has, however, been unable to reach a consensus on the magnitude of uncertainty of outcome on demand. In this article, we seek to resolve this impasse by distinguishing between uncertainty of outcome in the short run and uncertainty of outcome in the long run. We also show that it is important to control for the independent effect of absolute team strength when testing the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. Using data on over 380 Test cricket matches played in England, Australia and New Zealand since 1980, we find that short-run uncertainty of outcome has a significant impact on attendance demand and that absolute team strength has better explanatory power for attendance demand than does long-run uncertainty of outcome. Our results suggest some policy implications for the management and organization of international cricket. Taylor & Francis 2014-03-03 Article PeerReviewed Sacheti, Abhinav, Gregory-Smith, Ian and Paton, David (2014) Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket. Applied Economics, 46 (17). pp. 2034-2046. ISSN 1466-4283 demand; uncertainty of outcome; cricket; fixed effects https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036846.2014.892203 doi:10.1080/00036846.2014.892203 doi:10.1080/00036846.2014.892203 |
| spellingShingle | demand; uncertainty of outcome; cricket; fixed effects Sacheti, Abhinav Gregory-Smith, Ian Paton, David Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket |
| title | Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket |
| title_full | Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket |
| title_fullStr | Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket |
| title_full_unstemmed | Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket |
| title_short | Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket |
| title_sort | uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket |
| topic | demand; uncertainty of outcome; cricket; fixed effects |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50946/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50946/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50946/ |