Professional golfers on the PGA Tour must face countless risk and effort choices throughout any given tournament. The concern of the present study is how players alter their risk behaviors when faced with different positions relative to certain salient reference points within a tournament—primarily the cut and the win. study explores players' risk and effort behaviors in the context of a behavioral economics concept called loss aversion. Loss aversion says that people put more weight on losses than on gains. Thus, the present study expects professional golfers behind the cut and the win to exert more effort and risk. Players ahead of the cut or in the lead are expected to play it safe. Only one known previous study has explored loss aversion in professional golf. The results in the present study support the hypothesis and carry various implications for the PGA Tour, behavioral economics, and numerous other contexts outside of sports.
This study examines the effect of socioeconomic factors on winning games at the FIFA World Cup. This study identifies various macroeconomic, geographic, and soccer-specific characteristics that impact World Cup success. Determinants of World Cup success were largely identified through examination of performances measured at the Olympics and international soccer games. Ordinary Least Squares regression method is used to determine the significance of these factors for the countries that participated in the 1994-2010 World Cup tournaments. The results of this estimation method indicate that hosting, international rank, as well as regional origins and cultural traditions significantly impact wins. A country's wealth and population are not significant factors in winning games at the World Cup.
This study attempts to quantify whether the economic impact of the World Cup is significant on the host country. The study uses panel data analysis to test the hypotheses that the World Cup has no effect on GDP growth rates and unemployment. The data represents 15 countries over a 51 year time span that includes 11 World Cup Games. The results indicate that population growth has a significant positive effect on GDP growth rates and a negative effect on unemployment for nations that host the World Cup. The findings contribute to the World Cup literature using panel data analysis and provide decision makers a multidimensional understanding of the perceived economic benefits of hosting a World Cup.
