Cheating in Contests

Much of the interest in the study of sports from the perspective of an economist lies in the empirical application of contests as efficient mechanisms for eliciting effort. Contestants respond to contest incentives, and these incentives include the incentive to cheat. This paper discusses different forms of cheating: sabotage, doping, and match fixing. The paper discusses how these forms of cheating arise and how they can be treated. In particular, we look at specific forms of cheating in soccer, baseball, and cricket. In the appendix we develop a simple model of match fixing.