Journal of Sports Economics

We examine male-female rating gaps for young chess players using two decades of data from the U.S. Chess Federation. A contribution of our study is that we analyze the evolution of male-female gaps across a broad range of chess ratings, from novice to advanced. We find large gaps favoring males at entry and beyond across all percentiles of the ratings distribution. We find similar returns to tournament experience for males and females. Although female players have higher attrition rates than males, the net effect of this differential attrition on population ratings gaps is null. We find some evidence that male-female rating gaps at entry narrow modestly as female participation in the home locale rises – an effect that is generally stronger for weaker players. The key explanation for male-female differences in the population are ratings gaps at entry, which are large when first observed and persist over time.

This paper measures how a seasonal vehicle entry fee affects disc golf course choice in Westchester County, New York. We use ten years of user-level data from the UDisc app, covering 30,531 visits by 758 players from 2015 to 2024, in a setting with two nearby and broadly comparable courses. One course is located within a state park that charges a predictable $10 per-vehicle fee on a seasonal calendar, while the other course is free year-round. We estimate a within-user probit model of course choice, controlling for weather differences and a linear time index, with fixed effects for user, day of week, holiday, and year. When the fee is in effect, the probability of choosing the fee course falls by about 1.5 percentage points, a result that is robust to logit and linear probability models.

This paper presents the analysis of Olympic efficiency by introducing a weighted performance score that values both medals and near-podium finishes and by applying a random-parameters stochastic frontier model with heteroscedastic inefficiency to the Summer Games, 1996–2020. Unlike earlier studies, we allow production elasticities to vary across countries and examine the role of sports diversification in shaping efficiency. The results highlight the importance of broad participation across disciplines, showing that diversification not only raises potential output but also reduces inefficiency. Distributional analysis further reveals modest declines in inequality and meaningful opportunities for upward mobility, even as top performers persist. The findings suggest that efficient Olympic nations combine scale, diversification, and organizational quality, offering policy lessons beyond resource levels alone.

Penalty shootouts play a crucial role in the knockout stage of major football tournaments. Their importance has substantially increased from the 2021/22 season, when the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) scrapped the away goals rule. Our paper examines whether the outcome of a penalty shootout can be predicted in UEFA club competitions. Based on all shootouts between 2000 and 2025, no evidence is found for the effect of the kicking order, the field of the match, or psychological momentum. In contrast to previous results, we do not detect any relationship between shootout success and relative team strength, quantified by differences in Elo ratings and the implied winning probability. Thus, the hypothesis that penalty shootouts are close to a coin toss in international competitions for European football clubs cannot be rejected.