Firms who sell a regional or specialty product often share a common or collective reputation, which is based on the group's aggregate quality. The dynamic problem of collective reputation is similar to the natural resource extraction problems. Therefore, for the analysis of this particular problem, we use differential games. If there is unrestricted access to a common property resource (the reputation stock), agents perceive its shadow value to be zero and extract too rapidly; i.e, they all "cheat" on quality, "milking" the rents generated by the existence of the resource (reputation stock). We show that when there exists a collective product reputation without firm traceability, the firms will extract too much from the stock of reputation. A firm is said to "extract" reputation from the reputation stock when it sells low-quality products at high prices given by the high past levels of quality. The firm builds on the group's reputation when it provides a product with a quality level which is higher than the expected level of quality. The results from this work support minimum quality standards for producer groups and regional and specialty products. This is in contrast to the findings of previous work. Finally, the implications of these results are discussed as they relate to the case study of Washington apples.

This study uses a travel-cost model to analyse the attendance impacts on Major League Baseball (MLB) of the closest substitute MLB team. It is found that the closer two teams are, the lower attendance is at each team relative to two teams that are farther apart. In addition, when a new team moves into the area of an existing team, there is an additional initial reduction in attendance for the incumbent team. This has implications for actions aimed at changing the number of teams in MLB either by contraction or by possible antitrust approaches that would increase the number of teams, especially in megalopolis markets. Further, and consistent with past demand studies, pricing is in the inelastic portion of gate demand and fan loyalty is a significant contributor to the estimation of gate attendance.

This study estimates fan substitution in sports using the 2004-05 National Hockey League (NHL) season-long lockout as a natural experiment. The authors find that NHL fans substitute minor league and junior league hockey for the NHL. Because this is not due to a change in the price of a substitute good, the findings point to pure substitution effects without income effects. The findings have implications for future work on fan demand, especially for those studying habit and loyalty, or sports policy. I n this study, we investigate the behavior of National Hockey League (NHL) fans during the 2004-05 season-long lockout. This leads to insights concerning the demand for sports as we estimate the impact of the lockout on the attendance demand functions of minor and junior hockey league teams. We find that minor and junior league hockey teams had an increase in demand during the 2004-05 season. Because this observed switching did not happen because of a change in the price of a substitute good, these are pure substitution effects without income effects.A further interesting result is that this substitution took decidedly different forms in each of the two types of leagues. Attendance at minor league teams increased during the lockout with no statistically significant difference attributable to the presence of an NHL team in the same standard metropolitan statistical area (SMSA). However, for junior league teams, there was an increase in attendance only in cities where there was an NHL team in the same SMSA. Only 25% of minor league teams with an NHL franchise in the same SMSA in 2004-05 were in Canada, whereas 80% for junior league teams with an NHL franchise in the same SMSA were in Canada. Because our data do not allow us to determine the marginal contribution of fan nationality, we are only able to say the following: If both U.S. and Canadian NHL fans are otherwise alike, the minor league alternative is a closer substitute than the junior league alternative for fans without an NHL team in their SMSA. Because it seems that fans without an NHL team in their SMSA would be mainly NHL television fans, this also suggests that having live alternatives really only matters if it is a minor league team rather than a junior league team.Our work has implications for those studying sports fan demand, how substitution effects are best captured, the role of loyalty and habit in sports demand, and

This article tests the presence of demand-driven discrimination attributable to foreign-born players in Major League Baseball (MLB). We quantify the change in demand at MLB games given the number of foreign players on an MLB team. We further measure how matching market population demographics and team demographics affects demand. Copyright (c) 2010 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

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