The importance of sunk costs in economic decision making is a major source of disagreement between neoclassical and behavioral economists. We provide a direct test of the role played by sunk costs using evidence from the National Basketball Association. Because teams have a greater financial and...

One can define entrepreneurship, at its most basic level, as rent-seeking behavior. This behavior can be productive, as when firms innovate to create new or better products or when they enter a market to increase output where price exceeds marginal cost. Rent-seeking can also be unproductive,...

In response to declining budgets, many school districts in the US have reduced funding for sports. In Europe, parents may respond to difficult economic times by spending less on sports clubs for their children. Such cuts are unwise if participating in sports is an investment good as well as a...

A large experimental literature has arisen that shows significant differences in how men and women respond to economic contests. Non-experimental studies, however, frequently contradict the experimental findings. We use data from the ATP and WTA professional tennis tours (in which all contests...