A Meeting of Social Science and Football : Measuring the Effects of Three Points for a Win

• In this essay, we examine the introduction of three points for a win in senior football, a reform that eventually became universally adopted. We have two objectives. First, we seek to answer the question of whether the effect of the new system has justified its proliferation. The second objective is to present a methodological discussion about how to measure this effect, which involves judgments that many would say are entirely subjective and which, at best, are hard to operationalize - a problem that is not unusual in social science. We measure the ’excitingness’ of football through constructing an index of two distinct features of any match. We then apply the index to our data by combining quantitative analysis with strategic case-selection. Our preliminary findings are that three points for a win does seem to boost football’s excitingness, but that the improvement takes four to five years to take full effect.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Political science

Statsvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)