In 2005, Major League Baseball (MLB) introduced a new policy regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) wherein the league would not only suspend but also publicly name any player who tested positive for banned PEDs. Using the estimated television audience size of MLB games from 2006 to 2012, these PED suspension announcements provide a unique natural experiment to test how consumers react to news of PED use. This study finds that PED announcements have two major impacts on the demand for baseball. First, there is on average an immediate 9.3% reduction in the television audience of the PED player’s team. Second, the magnitude of the effect gradually decreases over time yet remains negative and significant for a period of 37 days or approximately 33 game-broadcasts. This is the first study to link PED use to an adverse reaction by consumers in a systematic way using television audience while controlling for the change in team quality caused by removing the suspended player from the team.

中文翻译：

---

性能增强的药物悬浮液对美国职棒大联盟需求的影响

2005年，美国职业棒球大联盟（MLB）出台了有关使用性能增强药物（PED）的新政策，该联盟不仅会暂停赛程，而且还会公开列出对被禁用PED测试呈阳性的任何球员。根据2006年至2012年美国职业棒球大联盟（MLB）游戏的估计电视观众规模，这些PED暂停公告提供了独特的自然实验，可以测试消费者对PED使用新闻的反应。这项研究发现，PED公告对棒球的需求有两个主要影响。首先，PED播放器团队的电视观众平均平均减少9.3％。其次，效果的强度会随着时间的推移逐渐降低，但在37天或大约33个游戏广播的时间内保持负面和显着性。