AN ECONOMIST CALLS FOR MAKING REFEREE EVALUATIONS PUBLIC.

AN ECONOMIST CALLS FOR MAKING REFEREE EVALUATIONS PUBLIC. I posted here arguing that referee ratings should be made public. I linked to a report by the Sun Belt Conference on the the refereeing of the 2006 Alamo Bowl which I think should be a model for all leagues and conferences. Now I have received an abstract of a paper by Ian Ayres of Yale University which is entitled: “Give Freakonomics a Chance.” The full abstract is as follows: “An NBA referee has now pleaded guilty, and forensic economists have found signs of bias and cheating in the NBA, college basketball and sumo wresting. Ian Ayres argues that the NBA should release referee data to allow forensic economists to look for statistical evidence of malfeasance, before credibility in results is lost.” The link to the article is here. I have not read the article because although the Berkeley Electronic Press has a generous policy of permitting a free view if I can recommend the journal to my institution, I don’t have an institution.