Christian Deutscher

Bielefeld University · Department of Psychology

Corruption in general and doping in particular are ubiquitous in both amateur and professional sports and have taken the character of a systematic threat. In creating unfair advantages, doping distorts the level playing field in sporting competition. With higher stakes involved, such distortions create negative externalities not only on the individ...

This study investigates the financial outcomes of product, service, and hybrid innovations in industrial markets. To date, empirical research has focused on product innovations, yet industrial firms are increasingly competing with innovative services to maintain their competitive edge. This study assesses the financial impact of service and hybrid...

In this paper, we address the problem of sabotage in tournaments with heterogeneous contestants. In a first step, we develop a formal model, which yields the prediction that favorites exert higher productive effort, while underdogs are more tempted to engage in destructive actions (sabotage). This is because favorites have a higher return on produc...

Changing clubs in professional sports lets a player face a new supportive crowd during home games, hence the question arises how performance is impacted by changing teams. This article measures the impact of the changed audience on free throw shooting performance. The data set includes all free throw attempts for 10 seasons from the National Basket...

Sports betting markets are proven real-world laboratories to test theories of asset pricing anomalies and risky behaviour. Using a high-frequency dataset provided directly by a major bookmaker, containing the odds and amounts staked throughout German Bundesliga football matches, we test for evidence of momentum in the betting and pricing behaviour...

When heterogeneous players make strategic investment decisions in multi-stage contests, they might conserve resources in a current contest to spend more in a subsequent contest, if the degree of heterogeneity in the current (subsequent) contest is sufficiently large (small). We confirm these predictions using data from German professional soccer, i...

Talented, ambitious workers (big fish) often join highly competitive organizations (big ponds), though they sometimes instead choose less competitive organizations (small ponds) offering brighter promotion prospects. Big fish exist in both types of organizations, though average worker ability is higher in big ponds. Top executives enjoy higher wage...

This paper uses 2011-2019 data from the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) to assess the determinants of playing time with a focus on the effects of players’ national origin. Playing time is explained by an array of standard performance variables as well as each player’s characteristics (such as age, height and weight). Controlling for these fact...

This paper uses 2005-2019 data from the Chinese Basketball Association to assess the determinants of playing time with a focus on the effects of players' national origin. Playing time is explained by an array of standard performance variables as well as each player's characteristics (such as age, height and weight). Controlling for these factors, w...

This paper uses 2011–2019 data from the Chinese Basketball Association to assess the determinants of playing time with a focus on the effects of players’ national origin. Playing time is explained by an array of standard performance variables as well as each player's characteristics (such as age, height, and weight). Controlling for these factors,...

Sports betting markets have grown very rapidly recently, with the total European gambling market worth 98.6 billion euro in 2019. Considering a high-resolution (1 Hz) data set provided by a large European bookmaker, we investigate the effect of news on the dynamics of live betting. In particular, we consider stakes placed in a live betting market d...

The outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 led to a shutdown of economic activities in Europe. This included the sports sector since public gatherings were prohibited. The German Bundesliga was among the first sport leagues realizing a restart without spectators. Several recent studies suggest that the home advantage of teams eroded for the remaining m...

Purpose of the research Special product displays in prominent in-store are expected to increase sales of the products they contain. Opposite to the rich existing literature on the impact of product in-store displays, we investigate the case of total product relocation instead of using the display location as an additional sales spot (secondary loca...

If a sports competition is broadcasted live, consumers may opt for substituting gate attendance with watching that game live on TV (or online). This might be worrisome for teams, particularly those in lower divisions, whose game day revenues typically exceed broadcasting revenues. So far, however, the literature testing this claim empirically is in...

This empirical research explores the impact of age on nationality and culturalproximity bias. World Cup competition data suggest that judges of professional ski jumping competitions prefer jumpers of their own nationality as wellas those with a similar cultural background and exhibit this preference by rewarding them with better marks. Furthermore,...

The outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 led to a shutdown of economic activities in Europe. This included the sports sector, since public gatherings were prohibited. The German Bundesliga was among the first sport leagues realising a restart without spectators. Several recent studies suggest that the home advantage of teams was eroded for the remain...

We investigate how the decision of workers to join a specific type of firm affects their future career opportunities. Workers can either join a very competitive firm (big pond) or a less competitive one (small pond). In a big pond, it is more difficult to advance, but the potential rewards are higher. We determine a separating equilibrium in which...

Talented, ambitious workers (big fish) often join highly competitive organizations (big ponds), though they sometimes instead choose less competitive organizations (small ponds) offering brighter promotion prospects. Big fish exist in both types of organizations, though average worker ability is higher in big ponds. Top executives enjoy higher wage...

Understanding and predicting how individuals perform in high-pressure situations is of importance in designing and managing workplaces. We investigate performance under pressure in professional darts as a near-ideal setting with no direct interaction between players and a high number of observations per subject. Analyzing almost one year of tournam...

Recent years have seen several match-fixing scandals in soccer. In order to avoid match-fixing, existing literature and fraud detection systems primarily focus on analysing betting odds provided by bookmakers. In our work, we suggest to not only analyse odds but also total volume placed on bets, thereby making use of more of the information availab...

Understanding and predicting how individuals perform in high-pressure situations is of importance in designing and managing workplaces, but also in other areas of society such as disaster management or professional sports. For simple effort tasks, an increase in the pressure experienced by an individual, e.g. due to incentive schemes in a workplace...

Betting markets have grown considerably lately. Despite their impact on the economic importance of professional sports, they just received academic interest recently. This article determines factors affecting the amount of money bet as well as the number of matched bets placed on the largest European soccer league, namely, the English Premier Leagu...

This empirical research explores the impact of age on nationality bias. World Cup competition data suggest that judges of professional ski jumping competitions prefer jumpers of their own nationality and exhibit this preference by rewarding them with better marks. Furthermore, the current study reveals that this nationality bias is diminished among...

Commercialization processes in European football are facilitated by reducing concurrent games within the leagues and reallocating kickoff times to prime time slots abroad. Consequently, the number of top division games that temporally overlap with lower division games has increased significantly during recent years. By using attendance data of arou...

We investigate the hot hand phenomenon in professional darts in a near-ideal setting with minimal to no interaction between players. Considering almost one year of tournament data, corresponding to 152,072 dart throws in total, we use state-space models to investigate serial dependence in throwing performance. In our models, a latent state process...

In this paper, we argue that potential inefficiencies on betting markets are more likely to exist at the very beginning of a season, when the available information on the teams' playing strength is difficult to evaluate. This lack of reliable information should be particularly large in the case of recently promoted teams that have typically undergo...

During the 2012–2013 lock-out in the National Hockey League a number of especially European NHL-players signed temporary contracts with European hockey clubs. While the sporting abilities of these players are unquestioned, the attendance effects for the teams signing these players have remained unclear. This chapter analyzes game-level data from th...

This study investigates whether firms are willing to pay higher wages to workers who demonstrate consistent performance than to those whose performance is more volatile. A formal model reflects a production technology view, assuming the law of diminishing marginal product. This model suggests that a more consistent worker produces higher expected o...

The present article empirically explores the impact of intermediate information on contestants' effort. Data involving substituted soccer players of the German Bundesliga indicate only weak evidence of a negative effect of ex ante heterogeneity on effort; in contrast, intermediate information, measured by goal difference at the time of substitution...

Im Fokus des vorliegenden Handbuches stehen die volkswirtschaftlichen Aspekte des Sports. Um dies zu betonen, wurde es mit dem Titel Sportökonomik entsprechend spezifiziert. Dabei wird Sportökonomik als eine Wissenschaftsdisziplin verstanden, die sich mit den mikro- und makroökonomischen Aspekten des Sports beschäftigt. Allgemein werden im Rahmen d...

Die weltweit gestiegene (wirtschaftliche) Bedeutung des Spitzensports erfordert in zunehmendem Maße auch eine wirtschaftswissenschaftliche (ökonomische) Betrachtung. Darüber hinaus verlangen Kernfragen im Management des nichtkommerziellen Freizeit- und Breitensports nach Antworten, die in erster Linie durch Anwendung modifizierter wirtschaftswissen...

Beginning March 2015, the National Basketball Association (NBA) started the public assessment of officiated events in close game situations, where teams are within five points with two or less minutes to play. This ex-post league evaluation of officials’ actions allows for a much improved analysis of referee biases like the home bias, preferential...

This paper examines national origin bias in professional basketball in both the North American National Basketball Association (NBA) and Spanish professional league (Liga ACB). Past studies into racial bias find mixed results. In contrast, our study provides consistent evidence that players born in the USA receive preferential treatment in both the...

Applying detailed within-tournament information about intermediate scores and contestants' ability in rank-order professional soccer tournaments, this study empirically analyzes the impact of interim results on the sabotage activities of heterogeneous contestants. Intermediate information that suggests that a contest is decided early decreases tota...

Corruption in general and doping in particular are ubiquitous in both amateur and professional sports and have taken the character of a systemic threat. In creating unfair advantages, doping distorts the level playing field in sporting competition. With higher stakes involved, such distortions create negative externalities not only on the individua...

The purpose of the current study is to investigate how consistency of professional soccer players' performance affects salaries in the German Bundesliga. Using game-level data for five consecutive seasons (n = 34,413 player-match day observations), we find empirical evidence for a salary premium to players showing volatility in performance. Applyin...

Industrial companies face the particular challenge of developing new products and services in traditionally goods-centered environments. Using panel data from 558 German industrial companies, this article analyzes the financial performance consequences of product and service innovations. The analysis confirms a positive impact of product innovation...

The demand for triathlon has increased considerably during recent years; however, up to now there is little research available on the economic aspects of this sport. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the sport-related expenditure of triathletes. Based on the concept of consumption capital, a theoretical framework is presented t...

Human capital theory, one of the cornerstones of modern labor and personnel economics, posits that individual salaries are a function of a person's skills and abilities. Irrespective of its undisputed theoretical importance and practical relevance, the empirical evidence on the impact of personality traits and characteristics on salaries, however,...

Die Tatsache, dass Spitzensportler Spitzengehälter verdienen ist bekannt. Im Zentrum der wissenschaftlichen Debatten stehen die beidermaßen anerkannten und konkurrierenden Thesen von Sherwin Rosen (1981) und Moshe Adler (1985). Obwohl beide Autoren plausible Argumentationen liefern, bestehen nach wie vor Erklärungsdefizite dahingehend, welcher der...

Hockey is inherently a rough, physical game. We analyze the impact of physical violence on the success of professional hockey clubs from the highest leagues in North America, Finland, and Germany. Using penalty min as an indicator of violence, the evidence is that incurring penalties will not improve the team’s points and may even reduce them. Actu...

After the lockout season in 2004, the 2005 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) introduced salary regulations, as well as revenue sharing, to the teams of the National Hockey League (NHL) with the aim to restore financial competitiveness. Given these objectives, the question arises if efficiencies improved under the new CBA. Using team values as t...

This chapter examines the method by which host countries are selected by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for the rights to organize the World Cup finals, and also investigates the benefits to host countries from organizing this event. The benefits to soccer fans in a host country from new stadium infrastructure and other le...

In team sports, as well as in other group productions, some individuals are asked to show leadership skills. Although it is assumed that this ability is compensated monetarily, there is a lack of empirical evidence for this common thesis. Because in professional sports the team captains are expected to possess these leadership skills, this article...

Erst in jüngster Vergangenheit haben sich wissenschaftlichen Studien damit beschäftigt, Persönlichkeitsmerkmale als Lohndeterminante aufzunehmen. Dies liegt unter anderem daran, dass in der Theorie für den Einfluss von Persönlichkeit auf Gehalt keine Aussagen getroffen werden. Zudem ist anzunehmen, dass Charaktereigenschaften, in Abhängigkeit vom j...