Home Team Advantage in the NBA: The Effect of Fan Attendance on Performance

Our study aims to estimate the effect of fan attendance on performance in the National Basketball Association (NBA). We use game day and adverse weather as instruments for attendance. Using two-stage least squares, we fail to find a statistically significant effect of attendance on overall game outcomes. However, again using two stage least squares, we do find a statistically significant effect on away team's free throw percentage. We find that an increase in percent attendance by 10 percentage points is, on average, associated with a decrease in away team's free throw percentage by 1 percentage point.