David Pinski

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Coe, Richard

Area of Concentration

Economics

Abstract

This thesis examines the impact of the 2013 away-fan ban on Argentina’s first division of professional soccer. The ban was a measure taken in response to violent incidents involving away fans. Available evidence suggests that the ban was ineffective in its intended goal of reducing violence and fan hooliganism – the majority of violence did not actually involve away fans, but rather involved competing factions of the same team’s fans. Due to the decrease in total fan attendance following the ban, the ban led to a decrease of at least $5 million in total consumer surplus. Other interesting effects were found: home-win percentage increased, large teams were disproportionately negatively impacted, and league competitiveness increased. An analysis of the effects of the ban on betting markets revealed that betting markets were relatively slow to reflect the increase in home-win percentage, leaving open the possibility to exploit this inefficiency and profit.

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