|
|
|
"...Freakonomics meets ESPN." —Alan
Schwarz, author, The Numbers Game
Taking Measure of the Many Myths
in Modern Sport
|
|
|
|
Reviews | What's Inside | Where to Order | Stanford University Press |
|
|
|
|
|
Chapter
Excerpts
|
|
A Sample from the PREFACE Every
day sports are played. Teams win and teams lose. Joyous fans celebrate each
win while losers dream of better days. With each event, numbers are recorded.
These numbers tell us who won, who lost, and more importantly, these numbers
tell us why some fans are so happy and others so sad. The question “why?”,
though, is difficult. To know why, one has to understand the stories the
numbers tell. This
is where we step into the picture. As professors of economics, we have been
trained in the art and science of statistical analysis. In fact, this is our
job. Our job is to use statistics and math to study economics. Of course, no
one told us what specifically we should study. So while sports fans go to
work each day at a job they may love or hate, we go to work every day
applying our skills to the study of professional sports. Yes, we get paid to
study sports. What
have we learned from our studies? We have learned that the numbers generated
by sports are poorly understood. Much of our research, which employs the
standard tools of economic theory and statistical analysis, contradicts what
we hear repeated by sports writers and the players and coaches working in professional
sports. Much
of this research has appeared previously in such academic journals as the American Economic Review, Economic Inquiry, Applied
Economics,
and the Journal of Sports Economics. Unfortunately, these journals are not generally read by
many people. So the stories we have told have not been widely heard. And that
is the basic problem. Although there may be “fans” of our work, we think we
can count the number of “fans” on one hand—and we probably do not have to use
all our fingers. Granted, it is not the size of the audience but its
enthusiasm that matters. Nevertheless, we would like to bring our work to a
wider audience. Hence
we come to the purpose behind this book. We wish to explain to as general an
audience as possible the findings we previously only presented in academic
journals and at academic conferences. Given that our work is about sports,
and many people find sports to be both fun and interesting, there is some
reason to believe such a book will be of interest to people outside of academia.
We do face one problem in telling our story. All of our writings to date have
been written for a very tiny audience of fellow academics. We were quite
certain that the approach we offered in our academic articles could not be
used in a book for a general audience. Hence we faced a dilemma. How can we
explain what we have done in economics and sports without using the math and
statistics we have grown to love and adore? Our
answer was found in Freakonomics, the book by Steven Levitt and
Stephen Dubner. Levitt
and Dubner collaborated on the story of Levitt’s academic research, and in the process, wrote a
best-selling book. What lesson did we learn from this work? In economics,
math and statistics rule the day. From Levitt and Dubner we learned that one can tell the story of research
in economics without relying on any technical details. Although our story is
about the numbers sports generate, the math and statistics we employ will be
relegated to endnotes and the web site [www.wagesofwins.com] associated with
the book. If you are not interested in the technical details, your ability to
enjoy our story will not be impaired. Excerpts (c) 2006 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland
Stanford Jr. University. No further use,
reproduction or distribution of this material is allowed without the written
permission of the publisher. |
|
|
|
|
