Bryson, Alex
[VerfasserIn];
Dolton, Peter J.
[VerfasserIn];
Reade, J. James
[VerfasserIn];
Schreyer, Dominik
[VerfasserIn];
Singleton, Carl
[VerfasserIn]
Experimental effects of an absent crowd on performances and refereeing decisions during COVID-19
Beschreibung:
The Covid-19 pandemic has induced worldwide natural experiments on the effects of crowds. We exploit one of these experiments currently taking place over several countries in almost identical settings: professional football matches played behind closed doors. We find large and statistically significant effects on the number of yellow cards issued by referees. Without a crowd, fewer cards were awarded to the away teams, reducing home advantage. These results have implications for the influence of social pressure and crowds on the neutrality of refereeing decisions.