Golfonomics

"This book presents Stephen Shmanskes innovative research combining two of his passions, golf and economics. He develops two themes the use of economics to explore institutional aspects of the business side of golf and the use of golf statistics to shed light on several vexing issues in economics. These two themes are addressed in two settings the economics of golf course management and the economics of professional golf. Examples from golf course management are covered in separate chapters on golf cart usage, golf course maintenance, and the problem of slow play. Examples from professional golf include the causal relationships from practice to skill to earnings, the tournament compensation model, and the measurement of gender discrimination." BACK COVER Golfonomics......Page 4 Preface......Page 8 Contents......Page 16 Part I. Warming Up......Page 20 1. Introduction......Page 22 Appendix to Chapter 1......Page 38 2. Get Your Weight Behind It......Page 41 2.1 A Simple Example......Page 42 2.2 Small Sample Bias......Page 48 2.3 Multiple Regression Analysis......Page 52 2.4 Economic Significance......Page 55 2.5 Epilogue......Page 57 Part II. The Front Nine: Golf Course Economics......Page 60 3. To Ride or Not to Ride......Page 62 3.1 Demand......Page 63 3.2 The Demand For Carts......Page 66 3.3 Golf Cart Economics......Page 75 4. Bad Mood Bias......Page 83 4.1 Surveys: Problems and Solutions......Page 84 4.1.1 Sampling......Page 85 4.1.2 Strategic Responses......Page 88 4.1.3 Researcher Bias......Page 90 4.2 Looking for a Bad-Mood Bias......Page 92 4.3 Results......Page 96 4.4 Top-Ten Lists......Page 102 5. Price Discrimination......Page 105 5.1 Competition and Monopoly with Uniform Pricing......Page 106 5.2.1 Model A......Page 110 5.2.2 Model B......Page 112 5.2.3 Model C......Page 113 5.2.4 Model D......Page 114 5.2.5 Model E......Page 115 5.3 Measures of Price Discrimination......Page 117 5.4 The Statistical Model......Page 121 5.5 Results......Page 125 Appendix to Chapter 5......Page 133 6. Replace Your Divots, and Please Don't Eat the Daisies......Page 135 6.1 The Economics of Golf Course Condition and Beauty......Page 138 6.2 The Data, the Model, and the Control Variables......Page 143 6.3 Golf Course Condition......Page 148 6.4 Golf Course Beauty......Page 154 6.5 Summary and Discussion......Page 156 7. Location, Location, Location......Page 158 7.1 A Stylized Numerical Example......Page 160 7.2 A Stylized Example with Randomized Course Location......Page 170 7.3 The Statistical Model......Page 174 8. The Economics of Slow Play......Page 184 8.1 Just-In-Time Production......Page 185 8.2 JIT on the Golf Course......Page 187 8.3 Complications......Page 188 8.4 The Golf Course Bottleneck......Page 191 8.5 Three Types of Slow Play......Page 196 8.6 An Application: Calling Up the Next Group on Par Threes......Page 202 Part III. The Back Nine: The Economics of Professional Golf......Page 210 9. The Business of Professional Golf......Page 212 9.1 The Professional Golfer as an Individual......Page 213 9.2 The PGA TOUR......Page 218 9.3 The Tournament Sponsor......Page 226 10. Practice Makes Perfect......Page 230 10.1 Economic Production Theory......Page 233 10.2 The Data......Page 238 10.3 The Relationship Between Skills and Earnings......Page 241 10.4 The Relationship Between Practice and Skills......Page 246 10.5 The Value of the Marginal Product of Practice......Page 251 11. Tournament Compensation in the Boardroom......Page 256 11.1 The Essence of Tournament Compensation......Page 257 11.2 Information, Scarcity, and Management Compensation......Page 263 11.3 Rewards, Effort, and Performance: Evidence from Golf......Page 266 12. Gender Discrimination?......Page 276 12.1 A Simple Model of Earnings and Discrimination......Page 277 12.2 Discrimination Between Men and Women Professional Golfers......Page 282 Part IV. The Nineteenth Hole......Page 304 13. The Nineteenth Hole......Page 306 References......Page 322 Index......Page 326