Does monitoring affect corruption? Career concerns and home bias in football refereeing

Abstract

This article evaluates refereeing bias in football games. Using a data set for Brazilian Championship, we find that referees systematically favour home teams setting more extra time in close matches in which home teams are behind. Career concerns seem to be relevant, since monitoring inhibits this behaviour and the effect of the refereeing bias on the probability of scoring in the extra time is quantitatively negligible.

Keywords:

• social pressure
• referee bias
• sports economics

JEL Classification:

• D03
• D73
• L83

Notes

¹The Law of the Game gathers official football rules that are determined by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and authorized by the International Football Association Board.

²A club is considered large if it is part of the Big 13, the association which groups the great Brazilian soccer clubs.