Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP10524
Authors: Jeffrey Cisyk; Pascal Courty
Abstract: There is little evidence in support of the main economic rationale for regulating athletic doping: that doping reduces fan interest. The introduction of random testing for performance-enhancing drugs (PED) by Major League Baseball (MLB) offers unique data to investigate the issue. The announcement of a PED violation: (a) initially reduces home-game attendance by 8 percent, (b) has no impact on home-game attendance after 12 days, and (c) has a small negative impact on the game attendance for other MLB teams. A lower bound for the cost of a PED violation to a team is $451K. This is the first systematic evidence that doping decreases consumer demand for sporting events.
Keywords: baseball; demand estimation; doping; performance enhancing drug
JEL Codes: D01; L83
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| PED suspension announcement (E60) | Home game attendance (L83) |
| PED suspension announcement (E60) | Attendance across the league (Z23) |
| Injury announcement (Y60) | Home game attendance (L83) |
| Time since PED suspension announcement (Z28) | Home game attendance (L83) |