Market Power

"Academics vs. Athletics: Career Concerns for NCAA Division I Coaches"

Here is the abstract to a new NBER by Christopher Avery, Brian Cadman, and Gavin Cassar entitled "Academics vs. Athletics: Career Concerns for NCAA Division I Coaches."

We analyze the promotions and firings of NCAA Division 1 college basketball and college football coaches to assess whether these coaches are rewarded for the academic performance of their players in promotion and retention decisions. We find that an increase in Academic Progress Rate, as measured by the NCAA, for a college team in either sport significantly reduces the probability that the coach is fired at the end of the season. We find little to no evidence that an increase in the Academic Progress Rate enhances the chances of advancement (in the form of outside job offers) for these coaches.

Here is the link to the working paper.

"Regulated And Unregulated Substitutes: Aversion Effects Of An Ethanol Mandate"

This is from Michael D. Noel and Travis Roach in a paper recently published by Economic Inquiry entitled “Regulated And Unregulated Substitutes: Aversion Effects Of An Ethanol Mandate”.  Here is the abstract.

“One approach for handling more aggressive goals under an ethanol mandate is to use a “dual blend” mandate in which both the preferred new ethanol blend and the old (possibly ethanol-free) blend of gasoline coexist. Highlighting the case of New South Wales, Australia, we show the dual nature of such a mandate can potentially lead to significant costs when consumers are averse. We show consumers en masse rejected the new blend and paid 43 cents per gallon more to avoid it. Not even the second of the mandate's four targets could be reached, and the consumer cost was substantial. (JEL L51, Q41, Q42, Q51)”

The Impact Of Managerial Change On Performance: The Role Of Team Heterogeneity

“When a key responsibility of a manager is to allocate more or less attractive tasks, subordinates have an incentive to work hard and demonstrate their talents. As a new manager is less well informed, management dismissals reinvigorate this tournament competition—but only in sufficiently homogeneous teams. We investigate this hypothesis using a large dataset on dismissals of soccer coaches, whose main task is indeed the selection of players. We find that dismissals enhance performance (only) in homogeneous teams. Moreover, we show that there is typically a negative selection bias when evaluating succession effects, which reconciles previous contradictory findings. (JEL D22, J44, J63)”

That is from a newly-published article in the April 2016 issue of Economic Inquiry. The title of the article is “The Impact Of Managerial Change On Performance: The Role Of Team Heterogeneity” and it’s authored by Gerd Muehlheusser, Sandra Schneemann and Dirk Sliwka.

Cross posted at The Sports Economist.

Monkees vs Iron Maiden

What do you get when you cross the Monkees' 'I'm a Believer" and Iron Maiden's " The Trooper"?  You get this.  

What would you call that song?  "I'm a Believer of The Trooper"?

Via Mark Stratton on Facebook.

Blackfathom River Cave

Which US state has the most caves?  Tennessee.  Missouri has the second most, and a new one has been announced.

On that day in November 2010, McCain and fellow explorers were mapping Blackfathom River Cave. Since its discovery in 2007, cavers have documented 7 miles of this glistening, highly decorated underground waterway in southern Ste. Genevieve County.

It is now Missouri’s seventh-longest known cave, and one of its most unusual, with its big fish and breathtaking cave formations.

This is the 7,000th documented cave by the Missouri Speleological Society in the state, according to the article.

Happy Valentine's Day 2015

 

"Willingness to Pay for Sensory Attributes in Beer"

As microbrew beers have become more popular, the intrinsic characteristics of
beer have become more important in consumer purchasing decisions. We identify
sensory properties that influence consumers’ willingness to pay for beer using a
contingent valuation model that includes subjective sensory evaluations and sociodemographic characteristics of consumers. We find that overall taste and hoppiness of a beer have a significant and positive impact on willingness to pay.

That's from "Willingness to Pay for Sensory Attributes in Beer" by Gabrielan, McCluskey, Marsh, and Ross in the April 2014 issue of Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.  As John Whitehead says:  "Please tell me this was a field experiment."

Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Clouds: On My Bucket List

Put the Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud on my bucket list too.

 

Here's another example that clearly shows that these clouds look like waves of water coming ashore.  Here is a discussion on what causes them.

 

Dear Surly Brewing

Dear Surly Brewing,

Please bring this back and make it available year-round in Mankato, Mn.

To paraphrase Ferris Bueller:  I love drinking it.  It is so choice.  If you have the means, I highly recommend picking it up.

Why Minneapolis Getting the 2018 Super Bowl is Not a Surprise

Some may think that Minneapolis getting the 2018 Super Bowl is a surprise.  When I heard the news, I "meh'd".  Of course they got the Super Bowl.  The NFL has been dangling the Super Bowl carrot for years to entice voters and politician intofunding shiny new palaces for their local NFL teams.  If the NFL doesn't come through on that promise sufficiently, future promises will fall on deaf ears.

Victor Matheson has more at TSE:

Choosing Minneapolis as the odds-on favorite really wasn’t that hard when one looks at the history of the game. First of all, despite New Orleans’ claim that Minneapolis is “a relative neophyte in the big-event hosting game,” the Twin Cities are hardly amateurs at hosting big events. Minneapolis hosted the Super Bowl back in 1992. In fact, I ate lunch right next John Madden at Minneapolis’ finest Chinese restaurant, the Village Wok, while in grad school in the city at the time. MLB sent the All-Star Game to Target Field just last July, and the city has hosted the World Series and the NCAA Final Four on multiple occasions. St. Paul hosted the 2004 Republican National Convention, a much bigger organizational and security undertaking than a simple football game. And let’s also just remember that experience isn’t everything. New Orleans, despite hosting more Super Bowls than any other city, couldn’t even manage to keep the lights on during their last attempt at hosting.

More importantly, however, is the fact that the NFL wants to reward cities that build new stadiums, especially those that shower their franchises with lots of taxpayer subsidies. The NFL constantly dangles the carrot of a Super Bowl in front of otherwise reluctant taxpayers in order to receive public handouts. Put  in $498 million, like the citizens of Minnesota did, and the NFL will send the Super Bowl and its supposed $498 million in economic impact  your way. It’s almost like getting a stadium for free. Of course, the bribe only works if the NFL is actually seen coming through with the big game.

Indeed the NFL has come through. Of the 16 Super Bowls hosted between 2001 and 2016, over half were held at newly constructed stadiums hosting Super Bowls for the first time including games in Tampa, Glendale, AZ, Detroit, Indy, New York/New Jersey, Jacksonville, Santa Clara, CA, Arlington, TX, and Houston. And now add Minneapolis to list.

In game theory we often talk about about credible threats, but promises need to be credible too.  If nothing else, the promise of a Super Bowl in exchange for a new stadium is a credible promise..

P.S.  Victor suggests going to the Village Wok if you go to Minneapolis for the Super Bowl.  I haven't been there, but I do recommend Broder's Cucina Italiana and Pizzeria Lola.  Good stuff, Maynard!

Update: Over at Facebook, Paul Miille from the Dallas-Forth Worth area comments:

Hey, it's not so bad having the Super Bowl. Just because there's an entire week when you can't go anywhere in the area of the stadium, or the hotels that will host travelers to the game, restaurants you love will either be unreachable, due to proximity to one or the other above, really good restaurants will simply be too busy and it'll end up costing the city about double what it brings in. I mean why wouldn't anyone want that in their city? We loved it so much, in DFW, that we'd rather have root canal without anesthetic than have another any time soon. Other than that, it was great fun.

Several years go my wife and I were touring wine country.  There was a couple from Calgary who were on the same tour and I asked them why they were down in Sonoma County.  The husband remarked that they had left town to get away from the insanity that was the Calgary Stampede.