Measuring competition in the Olympic Winter Games 1992–2014 using economic indices

Weber, Andreas Ch.; Kempf, Hippolyt; Shibli, Simon; De Bosscher, Veerle (2016). Measuring competition in the Olympic Winter Games 1992–2014 using economic indices Managing Sport and Leisure, 21(6), pp. 399-420. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/23750472.2017.1304232

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Since the early 1990s, competition in the Olympic Winter Games has changed notably in terms of events contested and nations taking part. Despite, these changes, which are overseen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the number of medal-winning nations has remained relatively stable. As a first attempt to illustrate this issue on a discipline by discipline basis, economic techniques are used to examine the outcome of competition between 1992 and 2014. The purpose of this paper is to measure: market size; the number of competing nations; and the balance between competitive nations in six disciplines. Focusing on competitive balance, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index is applied to measure the concentration of domination; while the Przeworski Index is used to quantify instability over time. Important changes are identified in biathlon (2010) and short track (2014). While the change in the former is consistent with the IOC’s substantial increase in biathlon events, the latter can be attributed to athletes changing their nationality. IOC policy-makers can benefit from this research as it provides a method by which to monitor competition in a discipline. This method provides the potential for evaluating the likely effects of governing the Olympic Games by increasing the number of events.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	Swiss Federal Institute of Sports Magglingen SFISM > EHSM - Sportökonomie
Name:	Weber, Andreas Ch.0000-0001-5322-5068; Kempf, Hippolyt; Shibli, Simon and De Bosscher, Veerle
ISSN:	2375-0472 (Print) 2375-0480 (Online)
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Language:	English
Submitter:	Service Account
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2021 12:47
Last Modified:	21 Sep 2021 02:18
Publisher DOI:	10.1080/23750472.2017.1304232
Related URLs:	Publication
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Olympic Winter disciplines Outcome of competition Competitive balance Static and dynamic economic indices International Olympic Committee
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.10958
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/10958