FYSP 032 - Moneyballs (and pucks): Sports Economics

FC SSCI QFR

4 credits
Sports are an integral part of many people’s lives; an intangible source of joy (or despair), a source of civic pride, a conduit through which memories are shared across generations. At its core, sports are a manifestation of humanity’s innate desire for interaction, cooperation, and self-improvement. Sports can teach us about human decision-making, and in this class, we will use sports as a lens to understand how an economist as a social scientist thinks about the decision-making process of individuals, teams, and communities in pursuit of athletic glory. The seminar will emphasize collecting and visualizing real world data across sports to understand issues such as market structure of leagues, public financing of stadiums, salaries for star athletes, mechanism design, game theory, developing ranking metrics, and much more.