People amaze me when they talk about not understanding why athletes cheat. Many of them think they play for the love of the game (even the beautiful game), but few realize that they are responding to incentives. If undergraduates (and graduate students) are willing to cheat in order to gain 5 extra bonus points, then athletes will surely cheat to gain a few million dollars. Each sport has some economist (myself included) that try to estimate the value of different productivity measures. For soccer, goals and assists are valued heavily (paper forthcoming). In baseball, you may recall the phrase "
chicks dig the long ball," and it's true!
So when you hear stories of steroids, blood doping, or oxygenation, just remember it's because sports consumers (you!) value these things. The large tv and incentive based contracts all revolve around a simple 101 lesson: incentives. If you think sports are immune, look around your own life.
