Graduation Year

2014

Publication Date

2014

Embargo Period

4-29-2014

Abstract

What is the effect of home court advantage in the National Basketball Association (NBA)? Based on the Economic Theory of Professional Sports and the concept of shirking, teams should perform better at home than they do on the road. Descriptive statistics support this expectation. It is hypothesized that a home court advantage is due to fan attendance, field goal and free throw percentages, and fouls called by the referee. Following every NBA team and every game played over a three-year span (2008-2011), this paper estimates the probability of producing a win at home based on the aforementioned variables. Using a logit regression analysis, it is found that a one standard deviation increase in attendance increases the home team’s chances of winning the game by 2.7%. A referee bias is also found, increasing the home court advantage for NBA teams.

Disciplines

Economics

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Included in

Economics Commons

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