Breaking the Ice (eBook)

Bernd Frick is Professor of Organisational and Media Economics, University of Paderborn & Director, Volkswagen’s Institute of Labour & Personnel Economics at Mobile Life Campus, Wolfsburg. Since 2007 he has hold the Chair of Organizational and Media Economics at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at University of Paderborn. He was a Research Associate at the Institute for Industrial Law und Relations in the European Community at University of Trier in 2003 – 2007.Professor Bernd Frick was the head of the Institute for Strategic Management and Business Policy in University of Witten/Herdecke from 2004 – 2007. He was also the Chairholder of the Reinhard-Mohn-Chair for Administration, Economic Ethics and Society Shift at the business faculty at University of Witten/Herdecke in  2001-2007Representative and chairman of the Chair for Business Administration, especially Organizational and Media Economics, at the school of law and political science faculty at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University of Greifswald 1995-2001He was a research associate for business economics, area of studies and research „Services Administration & Management“ at University of Trier in 1991-1995.At the University of Trier  in 1986-91, he was a research associate in the project "Betriebliche Personalpolitik und Schwerbehindertenbeschäftigung" ("Company manpower policies and severly handicapped employment") - "Zentrum für Arbeit und Soziales" ("Labour and social affairs centre").He was research associate in the project „A Comparative Study of the Involvement of Third Parties in the Resolution of Industrial Disputes in West Germany and the United Kingdom“ – at the Loughborough University of Technology, Great Britain in 1984-86.Bernd Frick was a certified research associate in the project "Sozialhilfedichte" ("welfare-density") of the department IV, Statistics at University of Trier in 1983-84.  

Contents 6
Contributors 8
Introduction 10
Why Hockey Economics? 10
Part I: Labor Relations and Player Behavior 11
From Strikes to Lockouts: Consequences of the Shift in the Balance of Power from the Players’ Union to the Owners in the National Hockey League 12
Introduction 13
Literature Review 15
Empirical Analyses 18
The Lockout as a Strategy 23
References 24
Fighting as a Profit-Maximizing Strategy: The American Hockey League 26
Fighting in Ice Hockey 28
The American Hockey League 30
Fighting Rules and Penalties in the AHL 31
Fighting as a Profit-Maximizing Strategy for the AHL 33
The Model 38
Data 41
Empirical Results 42
Conclusions 45
References 46
Part II: Salary Determination and Player Careers 47
Returns to Handedness in Professional Hockey 48
Introduction 48
Handedness and Play in Hockey 51
Preliminary Look at the Data 53
Salary Determination and Returns to Handedness 56
Conclusion 60
References 62
All-Star or Benchwarmer? Relative Age, Cohort Size and Career Success in the NHL 64
Introduction 64
Birth Cohort Size, Relative Age Effects and NHL Player Performance 67
Cohort Size and Player Outcomes 67
Relative Age and Player Outcomes 72
Data and Methods 75
Data Sources and Sample 75
Regression Specifications 77
Results 78
Birth Cohort Size and Player Salaries 78
Birth Cohort Size and Player Performance 81
Added Checks 84
Relative Age (Birth Month) and Player Outcomes 85
Does Relative Age (Birth Month) Moderate the Effect of Large Birth Cohort Size? 87
Do Results Differ During League Expansions and in the Post-Lockout Era? 89
Conclusions 93
Appendix 95
Data Sources 96
References 97
Part III: Diversity and Discrimination 99
If You Can Play, You Get the Pay!? A Survey on Salary Discrimination in the NHL 100
Introduction 100
Discrimination 103
Background and Changes in the NHL 105
Results 107
Conclusion 114
References 115
The Source of the Cultural or Language Diversity Effects in the National Hockey League 117
Introduction 117
The NHL and the Game of Hockey 120
Data and Empirical Model Motivation 120
Empirical Models, Estimation Results, and Inferences 122
Empirical Models 122
Estimation Results 125
Inferences 131
Conclusion 131
References 132
Team-Level Referee Discrimination in the National Hockey League 134
Introduction 134
The NHL, the Game of Hockey, and Related 135
The NHL and the Game of Hockey 135
Related Literature 136
Empirical Methodology 137
Empirical Model Motivation 137
The Data 139
Empirical Model Specifications 142
Estimation Procedure, Discrimination Tests and Results 144
Estimation Procedure 144
Discrimination Tests 144
Test Results 145
Concluding Remarks 148
References 149
Part IV: Ticket Demand and Ticket Pricing 151
The Effect of ‘Superstars’ on Attendance: NHL-Players in the German and Czech Hockey League 152
Introduction 152
Literature Review 154
Surveys on Determinants of Attendance in Sports 154
Analyzing the Determinants of Attendance in Hockey 155
Determining the Impact of Stars on Attendance 156
Professional Hockey in Germany and the Czech Republic 158
Data Description and Empirical Approach 160
Descriptive Attendance Statistics 160
Descriptive NHL-Player and Attendance Statistics 162
Control Variables 166
Results 169
Conclusion 173
Appendix 174
References 175
An Exploration of Dynamic Pricing in the National Hockey League 177
Introduction 177
Dynamic Pricing in Sports and Comparisons to Variable Pricing Models 179
Literature Review on Dynamic Pricing 180
Data and Regression Model 181
Regression Results for High and Low Ticket Price Sections for the Teams Using Dynamic Pricing 188
Conclusions 193
Appendix 195
Individual Section Prices for NHL Teams Using Dynamic Pricing 195
References 196
Index 198