Spending on big-time college athletics is often justified on the grounds that athletic success attracts students and raises donations. We exploit data on bookmaker spreads to estimate the probability of winning each game for college football teams. We then condition on these probabilities using a propensity score design to estimate the effects of winning on donations, applications, and enrollment. The resulting estimates represent causal effects under the assumption that, conditional on bookmaker spreads, winning is uncorrelated with potential outcomes. We find that winning reduces acceptance rates and increases donations, applications, academic reputation, in-state enrollment, and incoming SAT scores.

中文翻译：

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大学运动成功的好处：倾向得分设计的应用

经常花大笔钱参加大学体育运动通常是有道理的，因为体育运动的成功会吸引学生并筹集捐款。我们利用庄家差价的数据来估计大学橄榄球队每场比赛获胜的可能性。然后，我们使用倾向得分设计来评估这些概率，以估算获胜对捐赠，申请和入学的影响。在假设以庄家差价为条件，获胜与潜在结果无关的假设下，得出的估计值代表因果关系。我们发现，获胜会降低接受率，并增加捐赠，申请，学术声誉，州内入学率和入学SAT分数。