ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the quality of the research in sports economics. It examines what is known, what is not known, what is stable, what is changing, what is certain, and what is controversial in sports economics. The book focuses on discrimination toward French Canadian players. It explains Lee's discussion of efficiency estimation. Efficiency is determined by how well a team or manager uses player talent to generate wins or team profits. The book also examines the econometric tools and theoretical framework that have been underutilized in sports economics research and that provide an opportunity for several new threads of research. It finally provides a framework, created by Szymanski, for theoretically analyzing contests, whether they exist as individual sports competitions or games played within a sports league.
