Social pressure, favouritism and monitoring: new evidence in Brazilian football

• Grant number: 18/02696-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: March 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics
• Principal Investigator: Bruno de Paula Rocha
• Grantee: Almir Gonçalves de Lima Junior
• Host Institution: Centro de Engenharia, Modelagem e Ciências Sociais Aplicadas (CECS). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to evaluate the refereeing behaviour in Brazilian football. As we will discuss below, several authors have been using sports data to analyze choices in pressure environments, reporting evidence of refereeing bias in favour of home teams. Based on information from the last years of the Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol (Brasileirão Série A), our objective is to evaluate whether soccer referees systematically favour the home teams, assigning relatively more punishments for visiting teams. In addition, the study will investigate the influence of external factors, such as monitoring and experience, on refereeing decisions. (AU)