In the large literature on issues related to competitive balance, studies tend to find no significant effect of structural changes, such as changes in league rules, on parity. However, the 1993 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the National Football League owners and players included several innovations that might be expected to affect competitive balance. The present note measures interseasonal parity as the impact of previous season’s winning percentage on current season’s winning percentage and finds that the 1993 CBA had the effect of increasing competitive balance.
Buzzacchi, L., Szymanski, S., & Valletti, T. ( 2003). Equality of opportunity and equality of outcome: Open leagues, closed leagues, and competitive balance. Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, 3, 167-186.
2.
Daly, G. ( 1992). Diamonds are forever: The business of baseball. In M. Sommers Paul (Ed.), The Baseball Player’s Labor Market Revisited (pp. 11-28). Washington, DC : Brookings Institution.
3.
Daly, G., & Moore, W. ( 1981). Externalities, property rights, and the allocation of resources in Major League Baseball. Economic Inquiry, 19, 77-95.
4.
Eckard, W. ( 1998). The NCAA cartel and competitive balance in college football . Review of Industrial Organization, 13, 347-369.
5.
Eckard, W. ( 2001a). Baseball’s blue ribbon economic report: Solutions in search of a problem. Journal of Sports Economics, 2, 213-227.
6.
Eckard, W. ( 2001b). Free agency, competitive balance, and diminishing returns to pennant contention. Economic Inquiry, 39, 430-443.
7.
El-Hodiri, M., & Quirk, J. ( 1971). The economic theory of a professional sports league. Journal of Political Economy, 79, 1302-1319.
8.
Fort, R., & Quirk, J. ( 1995). Cross-subsidization, incentives, and outcomes in professional team sports leagues. Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 1265-1299.
9.
Hadley, L., Cieka, J., & Krautmann, A. ( 2005). Competitive balance in the aftermath of the 1994 players’ strike. Journal of Sports Economics, 6, 379-389.
10.
Humphreys, B. ( 2002). Alternative measures of competitive balance in sports leagues. Journal of Sports Economics, 3, 133-148.
11.
Kahn, L. ( 2007a). Cartel behavior and amateurism in college sports. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21, 209-226.
12.
Kahn, L. ( 2007b). Sports league expansion and consumer welfare. Journal of Sports Economics, 8, 115-138.
13.
Kahn, L. ( 2000). The sports business as a labor market laboratory. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14, 75-94.
14.
Kahn, L. ( 1993). Managerial quality, team success, and individual player performance in Major League Baseball. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 46, 531-547.
15.
Késenne, S. ( 2000). Impact of salary caps in professional team sports. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 47, 422-430.
16.
Knowles, G., Sherony, K., & Haupert, M. ( 1992). The demand for major league baseball: A test of the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. American Economist, 36, 72-89.
17.
Larsen, A., Fenn, A., & Spenner, E. ( 2006). The impact of free agency and the salary cap on competitive balance in the National Football League. Journal of Sports Economics, 7, 374-390.
18.
Leeds, M., & von Allmen, P. (2002). The business of sports . In Rosner Scott, & Shropshire Kenneth (Eds.), The economics of sports, (1st ed., pp. 361-366), Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
19.
Lowry, T. ( 2003, January 27). The NFL machine. Business Week, p. 89.
20.
Maxcy, J. ( 2002). Rethinking restrictions on player mobility in Major League Baseball. Contemporary Economic Policy, 20, 145-159.
21.
Maxcy, J., & Mondello, M. ( 2006). The impact of free agency on competitive balance in North American professional team sports leagues. Journal of Sport Management, 20, 345-365.
22.
McKenzie, R., & Sullivan, T. ( 1987). Does the NCAA exploit college athletes? An economics and legal reinterpretation. Antitrust Bulletin, 32, 373-399.
23.
Neale, W. ( 1964). The peculiar economics of professional sports. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 78, 1-14.
24.
Noll, R. ( 1974). Government and the sport business. In G. Noll Roger (Ed.), Attendance and price setting (pp. 115-158). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
25.
Oriard, M. ( 2007). Brand NFL: Making and selling America’s favorite sport. Chapel Hill, North Carolina (NC): University of North Carolina Press.
26.
Quirk, J., & Fort, R. ( 1992). Pay dirt: The business of professional team sports. Princeton, New Jersey (NJ): Princeton University Press .
