What a clever way to justify sitting around watching basketball - AND
getting paid
for it. "Research!"
s_knight8@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6765734?MSNHPHMA
>
> Study: White refs call more fouls on blacks
>
> NEW YORK (AP) - An academic study of NBA officiating found that white
> referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than
> against white players, The New York Times reported on its Web site
> Tuesday night.
>
>
> The study by a University of Pennsylvania assistant professor and
> Cornell graduate student also found that black officials called fouls
> more frequently against white players than black, but noted that that
> tendency was not as pronounced.
>
> Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy
> at Penn's Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student
> in economics, said the difference in calls "is large enough that the
> probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial
> composition of the refereeing crew."
>
> The study, conducted over a 13-season span through 2004, found that
> the racial makeup of a three-man officiating crew affected calls by up
> to 4 1/2 percent.
>
> The NBA strongly criticized the study, which was based on information
> from publicly available box scores, which show only the referees'
> names and contain no information about which official made a call.
>
> "The study that is cited in the New York Times article is wrong,"
> president of league and basketball operations Joel Litvin told The
> Associated Press on Tuesday night. "The fact is there is no evidence
> of racial bias in foul calls made by NBA officials and that is based
> on a study conducted by our experts who looked at data that was far
> more robust and current than the data relied upon by Professor
> Wolfers.
>
> "The short of it is Wolfers and Price only looked at calls made by
> three-man crews. Our experts were able to analyze calls made by
> individual referees."
>
> Litvin said the NBA's study, using data from November 2004 to January
> 2007, included some 148,000 calls and included which official made
> each call. The Times said the NBA denied a request by Wolfers and
> Price to obtain that information, citing its confidentiality agreement
> with the officials.
>
> The study also found differences in everything from a decrease in
> scoring to a rise in turnovers depending on the officials' race.
>
> "Player-performance appears to deteriorate at every margin when
> officiated by a larger fraction of opposite-race referees," Wolfers
> and Price wrote.
>
> But the key finding was in regard to foul calls, saying "black players
> receive around 0.12-0.20 more fouls per 48 minutes played (an increase
> of 2 1/2-4 1/2 percent) when the number of white referees officiating
> a game increases from zero to three."
>
> The NBA has an observer at each game and closely monitors its
> officials, who are required to file reports after each game they work
> and are expected to be able to explain each potentially controversial
> call they have made.
>
> Litvin said in an original version of the paper, dated March 2006,
> Wolfers and Price came to the conclusion that there was no bias. He
> added that the NBA's research "all prove beyond any doubt in our minds
> that these guys are just flat wrong."
>
> "They reached conclusions in their own papers that are unsupported by
> their own calculations," Litvin said.
>
> Wolfers and Price are set to present the paper at meetings of the
> Society of Labor Economists on Friday and the American Law and
> Economics Association on Sunday. The Times said they will then submit
> it to the National Bureau of Economic Research and for formal peer
> review before consideration by an economic journal.
>
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