Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Does Player Performance Outside Of Major League Baseball Translate To The Mlb?, Ian Vogt

Honors Theses

Statistical analysis has transformed the way front offices across Major League Baseball manage the rosters of their teams. However, much of this statistical analysis is limited to evaluating players playing in the American major league environment. Little has been done in the way of using statistical analysis to evaluate how performance translates from league-to-league, and the market for international and college players remains highly inefficient, despite expansion of these player pools. My study is an attempt to make this market a more efficient one.

I measure the correlation between performance in two top international baseball leagues (Nippon Professional Baseball and …

Money Puck: The Effectiveness Of Statistical Analysis In Building An Nhl Team, Troy Grosenick

Honors Theses

The 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement in the National Hockey League limits contracts offered to free agents in terms of length and variance in yearly salary. These changes have made finding undervalued free agents even more important to teams’ general managers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate players and teams with both traditional and advanced metrics to determine how players are valued in comparison to their impact on their team’s performance. A team’s winning percentage is hypothesized to be a function of shooting percentage and save percentage, as well as proxies for puck possession time, such as shots on …

Unguaranteed Money In The Nfl: A Useful Tool For Risky Players, Wayne Simpson

Honors Theses

This study is investigating whether or not the percentage of non‐guaranteed money or length in NFL contracts reflects how risky players are as judged by past statistics. While sports economists have completed numerous studies on the motivational power of incentives, a study trying to identify the riskiness of players to lead to the strategic use of non‐guaranteed money and length of contract is a new idea. Contract details were gathered for running backs and wide receivers on NFL rosters for the 2012 season from rotoworld.com. Players who were still on rookie contracts and who were primarily special teams players were …

An Economic Analysis Of Somali Piracy Deterrence Strategies Within The Context Of The Economic Theory Of Crime And Punishment, Ryan Castello

Honors Theses

From 2006 to 2010, the number of reported piracy incidents perpetrated by Somali pirates, has increased from 19 to 212 per year, an alarming trend for the international shipping industry. This paper examines the increasing number of pirate attacks within the context of the theory developed in, Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach (Becker, 1968). This paper demonstrates the supply of pirates is a function of probability of punishment, severity of penalty, as well as institutional factors. This research entails a theoretical discussion, and an analysis of the available data on Somali piracy. The theoretical discussion combines theory with current …