Public Policy and Professional Sports

International and Australian Experiences

New Horizons in the Economics of Sport series

John K. Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of South Australia Business School, Australia and Richard Pomfret, Professor of Economics, University of Adelaide, Australia, and Adjunct Professor, The Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center, Italy

Public Policy and Professional Sports is a comprehensive analysis of public policy aspects of the economics of professional sports, supported by in-depth international case studies. It covers regulation and competition in the sports industry and its labour markets, public spending on stadiums and mega-events, and governance issues including unethical behaviour (corruption, doping, etc). The innovative feature of the work is the combination of economic analysis and well-known international examples with detailed case studies of public policy as it relates to sport in Australia. Australia is an excellent case study due to the high profile of sport in the national psyche and the range of popular professional sports.

‘ . . . an accessible read for both the undergraduate and even noneconomist (sport fan) alike. It has potential suitability as a supplementary text, or even as a prescribed text for a (more nontechnical) sports economics course. Public Policy and Professional Sports: International and Australian Experiences makes for a compelling read. A distinctive contribution to the existing literature.’
– Liam Lenten, Journal of Sports Economics