This article empirically determines whether travel factors affect National Basketball Association (NBA) teams’ production of wins, offense, and defense. Distance traveled has little impact on win production. Teams with fewer days since their last game produce fewer wins, with an especially large effect for visiting teams in the first half of the season. Game frequency costs accrue in the second half of the season, significantly hurting visiting teams’ win production. In the second half of seasons, win production increases when teams play in time zones to the east and decreases in time zones to the west of their home time zone.
Berri, D.J. ( 1999). Who is ‘most valuable’? Measuring the player’s production of wins in the National Basketball Association. Managerial and Decision Economics, 20, 411-427.
2.
Carmichael, F., & Dennis, T. ( 2005). Home-field effect and team performance. Journal of Sports Economics, 6, 264-281.
3.
Carron, A.V., Laoughhead, T.M., & Bray, S.R. ( 2005). The home advantage in sport competitions: Courneya and Carron’s (1992) conceptual framework a decade later. Journal of Sports Sciences, 23, 395-407.
4.
Clarke, S.R., & Norman, J.M. ( 1995). Home ground advantage of individual clubs in English soccer. The Statistician, 44, 509-521.
5.
Courneya, K.S., & Carron, A.V. ( 1991). Effects of travel and length of home stand/road trip on the home advantage. Journal of Sports & Exercise Psychology , 13, 42-49.
6.
Courneya, K.S., & Carron, A.V. ( 1992). The home advantage in sport competitions: A literature review. Journal of Sports & Exercise Psychology, 14, 13-27.
7.
Fizel, J.L., & D’Itri, M.P. (1997). Managerial efficiency, managerial succession, and organizational performance. Managerial and Decision Economics, 18, 295-308.
8.
Hofler, R.A., & Payne, J.E. ( 1997). Measuring efficiency in the National Basketball Association . Economics Letters, 55, 293-299.
9.
Jehue, R., Street, D., & Huizenga, R. ( 1993). Effect of time zone and game time changes on team performance: National Football League. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 25, 127-131.
10.
Lee, Y.H., & David, B. ( 2008). A re-examination of production functions and efficiency estimates for the National Basketball Association. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 55, 51-66.
11.
McGoldrick, K.M., & Voeks, L. ( 2005). We got game! An analysis of win/loss probability and efficiency differences between the NBA and WNBA. Journal of Sports Economics, 6, 5-23.
12.
Pace, A., & Carron, A.V. ( 1992). Travel and the home advantage. Canadian Journal of Sport Sciences, 17, 60-64.
13.
Quinn, K.G., Paul, B.B., Christopher, P.B., & Lisa, R. ( 2003). Do new digs mean more wins? The relationship between a new venue and a professional sports team’s competitive success. Journal of Sports Economics, 4, 167-182.
14.
Recht, L.D., & Lew, R.A. & Schwartz, W.J. ( 1995). Baseball teams beaten by jet lag. Nature , 583, 377.
15.
Scully, G.W. ( 1974). Pay and performance in Major League Baseball. The American Economic Review, 64, 915-930.
16.
Scully, G.W. ( 1995). The market structure of sports. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press.
17.
Simmons, B. ( 2008, 21 November). Attention: Home-field advantage has left the building. ESPN.com,.
18.
Smith, D.R., Anthony, C., Jennifer, S., & Danielle, L. ( 2000). Travel and the home advantage in professional sports . Sociology of Sport Journal, 17, 364-385.
19.
Zak, T.A., Cliff, J.H., & John, J.S. ( 1979). Production efficiency: The case of professional basketball . Journal of Business, 5, 379-392.
