1964：Neale职业体育特殊经济学.pdfVIP

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS Vol. LXXVIII February, 1964 No. 1 Downloaded from THE PECULIAR ECONOMICS OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS * A CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF THE FIRM IN SPORTING COMPETITION AND IN MARKET COMPETITION / WALTER C. NEALE Louis-Schmelling paradox, 1.— The inverted joint product or the product joint, 2.— League standing effect, 3.—Fourth estate benefit, 3.— Multifirm plants, 5.—Diminishing quality returns, 8.— Input-enthusiasm effect, 8.— Roger Maria cobweb, 12.— Bobby Layne rigidity, 12.— Archie Moore invisi- bility, 13. at St Francis Xavier University on October 24, 2011 Professional sport promoters and owners of professional teams have long claimed a special position in respect to the monopoly laws and the constitutional prohibition against slave labor, and re- cently they have been deservedly successful in appeals to Congress. This paper presents the results of serious thought about the prob- lem, serious thought engaged in after choosing sides on the issue. I submit that the firm in professional sports is indeed in a peculiar position vis-a-vis our accepted way of looking at the firm in a com- petitive market. The basic proposition can be called the Louis-Schmelling Paradox. If we ignore for the moment the legal reasons in the United States for avoiding a monopoly position, it is clear that the ideal market position of a firm is that of monopoly, whether to maximize profits or to maximize the comfort of life. If we consider the monopoly laws, the ideal position is as close to monopoly as the antitrust division will permit without prosecution. In brief, a firm is better off the smaller or less important the competition, and it will try to attain a situation in which it is the sole supplier. But