Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Estimating The Effect Of Home Court Advantage On Wins In The Nba, Jason Kotecki

Honors Projects

What is the effect of home court advantage in the National Basketball Association (NBA)? Based on the Economic Theory of Professional Sports and the concept of shirking, teams should perform better at home than they do on the road. Descriptive statistics support this expectation. It is hypothesized that a home court advantage is due to fan attendance, field goal and free throw percentages, and fouls called by the referee. Following every NBA team and every game played over a three-year span (2008-2011), this paper estimates the probability of producing a win at home based on the aforementioned variables. Using a …