Brad Humphreys will present his paper on "Blaming The Ref: Exploring the Effect of Unexpected Emotional Cues on Family Violence" at the UZH Business Economics Research Seminar.

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Abstract

The trauma of family violence generates long-term effects on offenders, victims, and other household members. Insight into the triggers of family violence can inform policy and services that work to reduce abusive behavior in the home. We investigate potential triggers of family violence by analyzing unexpected losses in National Basketball Association games. The literature identifies an increase domestic violence after unexpected losses in the National Football League. Combining information regarding NBA referee performance in terms of correct calls with measures of referee fatigue, we use a unique identification strategy to explore the impact of human error on family violence after unexpected losses. Results indicate that as NBA referees are more accurate (more rested) in unexpected losses, family violence decreases, suggesting that the ability to place blame for a loss on referees increases the likelihood of domestic a violence. Further analysis shows that these results concentrate in games where betting markets were more certain of the game outcome.

About Brad Humphreys

Brad R. Humphreys is a native West Virginian and WVU alumni.  He holds a BS in Business Administration and a BS in Economics from the WVU Chambers College of Business and Economics and an MA and PhD in economics from the Johns Hopkins University.   He is a professor of economics in the College of Business and Economics.  He previously held positions on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Alberta, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. 

He is the 2016-17 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Social and Behavioral Sciences at WVU.

His research on the economics and financing of professional sports and the economics of gambling has been published in academic journals in economics and policy analysis, including the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Regional Science, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Empirical Economics, Public Finance Review, and Regional Science and Urban Economics.  He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals in economics and public policy.  He is the co-editor of the three volume The Business of Sport, a comprehensive examination of sports business, economics, and finance which was named an Outstanding Business Reference Source by the Business Reference Sources Committee of the American Library Association.  

He is Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Economic Policy, a general interest economics journal and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sports Economics, the International Journal of Sport Finance, the  International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, and International Gambling Studies.

He twice testified before the United States Congress on the economic impact of professional sports teams and facilities.  He has also testified before the Massachusetts legislature and Washington DC City Council on the financing of sports facilities.  In 2014 he co-authored a report with economists from the Brattle Group for the Governor’s Office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts evaluating taxpayer liabilities associated with hosting the 2024 Olympic Games; the Boston 2024 Olympic Bid was terminated shortly after the report was issued.