Publication detail

Why sports officials may choose not to fight performance-enhancing drugs

HAUGEN, K. POPELA, P.

Czech title

Proč se představitelé sportu mohou rozhodnout nebojovat proti dopingu

English title

Why sports officials may choose not to fight performance-enhancing drugs

Type

journal article - other

Language

en

Original abstract

In this article, we present further discussion provoking explanation, why the existing fight against doping in sport is not fully successful although widely presented in media. Our paper is based on economical arguments derived from discussions of practitioners due to lack of statistically valid data and their fundamental mathematical modeling. Hence, the maximization of a (two-variable) sports attendance demand function, depending on athletes’ performance and doping prevalence, may result in a positive optimal doping prevalence and explain the existing sport doping related situation. Given reasonable assumptions on relevant functional behavior, this result can be interpreted as an incentive for sports officials to allow (and even welcome) some doping. As a consequence, we conclude that one should not be surprised that doping exists and is widespread under the assumption of aggregated rational behavior that is common in economical research. Therefore, the needfor a global coordinated system of testing and sanctions decoupled from sport may be a necessary condition in order to meet these challenges and together with the proposed model should be the subject of further discussions.

Czech abstract

V tomto článku nabízíme k další diskusi provokující vysvětlení, proč stávající boj proti dopingu ve sportu není zcela úspěšný, ačkoliv je široce prezentován v médiích. Náš pohled je převážně založen na ekonomických argumentech z diskuse odborníků a opírá se o základní matematické modelování. Maximalizace poptávkové funkce je diskutována v závislosti na výkonu sportovců a míře používání dopingu. S ohledem na obvyklé předpoklady o většinovém chování, a tedy předpoklady o prvcích modelu, je uvedena idea, že z pohledu představitelů sportu určitá úroveň dopingu je kvůli hodnocenému užitku výhodná. Proto docházíme k závěru, že čtenář by neměl být překvapen, že doping existuje a je rozšířený za předpokladu interpretace agregovaného racionálního chování jednotlivců tak, jak je běžné v ekonometrickém výzkumu.

English abstract

In this article, we present further discussion provoking explanation, why the existing fight against doping in sport is not fully successful although widely presented in media. Our paper is based on economical arguments derived from discussions of practitioners due to lack of statistically valid data and their fundamental mathematical modeling. Hence, the maximization of a (two-variable) sports attendance demand function, depending on athletes’ performance and doping prevalence, may result in a positive optimal doping prevalence and explain the existing sport doping related situation. Given reasonable assumptions on relevant functional behavior, this result can be interpreted as an incentive for sports officials to allow (and even welcome) some doping. As a consequence, we conclude that one should not be surprised that doping exists and is widespread under the assumption of aggregated rational behavior that is common in economical research. Therefore, the needfor a global coordinated system of testing and sanctions decoupled from sport may be a necessary condition in order to meet these challenges and together with the proposed model should be the subject of further discussions.

Keywords in Czech

Výkon zlepšující drogy, optimální úroveň dopingu, výkonnost, poptávka, modelování

Keywords in English

Performance-enhancing drugs, optimal level of doping, performance, demand, modeling

RIV year

2015

Released

30.11.2015

Publisher

University of Palermo

Location

Italy

ISSN

2282-5673

Volume

3

Number

2

Pages from–to

1–8

Pages count

8

BIBTEX


@article{BUT124171,
  author="Kjetil Kare {Haugen} and Pavel {Popela},
  title="Why sports officials may choose not to fight performance-enhancing drugs ",
  year="2015",
  volume="3",
  number="2",
  month="November",
  pages="1--8",
  publisher="University of Palermo",
  address="Italy",
  issn="2282-5673"
}