Home bias in officiating: evidence from international cricket. (30th September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sacheti, Abhinav; Gregory‐Smith, Ian; Paton, David
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Volume 178:Number 3(2015:Jul.)
• Page Start: 741
• Page End: 755
• Publication Date: 2014-09-30
• Subjects: Social sciences -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; Statistics -- Periodicals; 300.15195
• DOI: 10.1111/rssa.12086
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0964-1998

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="rssa12086-abs-0001"> <title>Summary</title> <p>We use data on leg before wicket decisions from 1000 test cricket matches to quantify the systematic bias by officials (umpires) to favour home teams. We exploit recent changes in the regulation of test cricket as a series of natural experiments to help to identify whether social pressure from crowds has a causal effect on home bias. Using negative binomial regressions, we find that home umpires favour home teams and that this effect is more pronounced in the later stages of matches.</p> </abstract>