Alexander Dilger

Are Athletes Doped? Some Theoretical Arguments and Empirical Evidence

Sports fans all over the world have recently witnessed an increasing number of spectacular doping cases, leading to considerable annoyance in the public. However, our knowledge regarding the prevalence of doping is still quite limited, leading some people to speculate that (nearly) all professional athletes are doped and possibly even have to be doped to be good enough to compete successfully in highly selective tournaments. On the other hand, particularly representatives of the sports associations pretend that since the number of positively tested athletes remains small, there are only a few “black sheep,” while in general, the world of sport is clean and fair. In the recent past, a number of theoretical models have been developed that can be empirically tested, which, in the end, may lead to the formulation of policy recommendations (ranging from higher sanctions to legalizing doping). We review the more important models and present anecdotal as well as some quantitative empirical evidence on the prevalence as well as the determinants of doping. (JEL K42, L83, M52)

Are Three Points for a Win Really Better Than Two? A Comparison of German Soccer League and Cup Games

The effects of the three-point rule in the first league German soccer are tested empirically and compared to games from the German cup competition. The inclusion of cup games ensures that changes in league games can be attributed to the three-point rule. As a result of their relative devaluation, the number of draws should decrease. Furthermore, an increase in the number of close wins is expected. The strategy of a leading team becomes more defensive, resulting in fewer goal shootings by that team, as well as fewer shooting opportunities for the opponent. Empirical evidence supporting these effects is found.

Never Change a Winning Team: An Analysis of Hazard Rates in the NBA

We estimate Cox models to determine proportional hazard rates in professional basketball, concerning leaving the league or changing the team by using a database covering all players of the NBA in the 90s. We predict and confirm that league-hazards depend on a players performance. A teamswitch, however, cannot depend on low performance itself because there has to be a team willing to accept the (new) player. Accordingly we find that a good scoring performance and an intense use of a player reduces the probability of a team-switch, whereas high salaries or non-scoring performance do not.

German Universities as State-Sponsored Co-Operatives

Most universities in Germany are public firms but they have many properties of co-operatives. The most important thereof are described and analysed together with the characteristics of state-sponsorship. The real companions of the university as a co-operation are its professors. The same is true for the faculty level, perhaps even more so. However, especially the students are also organised in a co-operative form as are the representatives of all membership groups together. The state is making some crucial reforms that transform this university model or may even destroy it. In any case, the change is slow, painful and open-ended.

The Value of Sporting Success to Germans: Comparing the 2012 UEFA Championships with the 2012 Olympics

We examine the value of sporting success to the German population at two major sport events in 2012, the European Championships in football and the London Olympic Games. Using the contingent valuation method (CVM), this study is the first to compare the value of sporting success between two events. The results show a higher average willingness-to-pay (WTP) for winning the European title in football (€47.31) than for Germany being ranked first in the Olympic medal table (€37.06). Aggregated WTP amounts to €3.3 billion (football) respectively €2.6 billion (Olympics). We can also determine significant drivers of WTP for sporting success.

The Dynamic of Bicycle Finals: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Slipstreaming

The finals of bicycle races have certain peculiarities compared to other sports. The leading group in a bicycle race rides comparatively slowly until one of the competitors tries to shake off his opponents. Only then do all riders perform to the limit. This raises the question of who takes the thankless early lead and why. The rider who is in front just before the final sprint is seldom the one who wins. The relevant physics and their implications for sport economics are analysed and tested empirically.

Betriebsräte und Innovationen

Welchen Innovationseinfluss haben Betriebsrate? Nach Sichtung der bisherigen okonometrischen Untersuchungen wird ein neuer groser Datensatz aus dem deutschen Maschinenbau ausgewertet, das NIFA-Panel. Erstmals werden neben der reinen Betriebsratsexistenz verschiedene Betriebsratstypen in Bezug auf ihr Verhaltnis zum Management betrachtet. Auserdem wird unterschieden, ob ein Betriebsrat vom Management uber das gesetzlich und tarifvertraglich vorgeschriebene Mas hinaus eingebunden wird oder nicht. Ohne diese Unterscheidung ist der Einfluss der Betriebsratstatigkeit auf das betriebliche Innovationsverhalten insignifikant. Doch die Einbindung des Betriebsrats fuhrt zu signifikant positiven Innovationseffekten.

A Citation Based Ranking of German-Speaking Researchers in Business Administration with Data of Google Scholar

Abstract Rankings of academics can be constructed in two different ways, either based on journal rankings or based on citations. Although citation-based rankings promise some fundamental advantages they are still not common in German-speaking business administration. However, the choice of the underlying database is crucial. This article argues that for German-speaking researchers in business administration (as an example for a non-English speaking scientific community in the social sciences) Google Scholar is an appropriate database. Unfortunately, it contains some structural errors that require diligent corrections. With that in mind, all 1572 members of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) are ranked according to the citations of their recent publications (2005–2009). The results are compared to those of the Handelsblatt-BWL-Ranking which is the most prominent journal-based ranking of German-speaking academics in this discipline. It becomes clear that differences in method lead to different results.

Buying without using – biases of German BahnCard buyers

We use a large data set of German railway travellers to analyse the purchasing decision for fare-reducing BahnCards. We expect that this tariff choice is neither completely rational nor irrational, but bounded-rational in a meaningful way. Actually we predict a flat-rate bias, i.e. an under-use of their BahnCards by many customers. However, we estimate that this bias is not too large. The empirical results approve our hypotheses for the most part, especially for the more expensive BahnCard50 (BC50), whereas the under-use of the cheaper BahnCard25 (BC25) is so extensive that it is not worthwhile on average.

Scholars' physical appearance, research performance, and feelings of happiness

Our study aims to analyse whether former feelings of happiness and/or physical appearance are significantly correlated with the subsequent observable research performance of scholars. To the best of our knowledge, both has not been analysed previously. To do so, we photographed 49 persons attending the 72nd annual conference of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB), which took place in Bremen in 2010. We interviewed them about their feelings of happiness. Later we asked students to evaluate the photographed persons’ attractiveness, competence, trustworthiness, likeability and their feelings of happiness. To determine the academics’ research performance we compiled a list of their recent journal publications, considering different journal weights and dividing them by the number of authors. Regression analyses reveal significant relationships between feelings of happiness in 2010 and research performance in 2011/2012. Conversely, we cannot observe significant relationships between previous research performance and subsequently reported feelings of happiness. Even though at first glance one would not expect that physical appearance is relevant for research output we find significant relationships. While previous studies show that scholars’ evaluations of teaching are influenced by attractiveness, our results suggest that research performance is not influenced by attractiveness but especially by (perceived) trustworthiness. Our data also reveal a weakly significant correlation between scholars’ perceived feelings of happiness and their reported feelings of happiness.