2007 Reports

How to divide the possession of a football?

Che, Yeon-Koo; Hendershott, Terry

In an National Football League overtime, a coin is tossed to determine which team will receive the kick off. In the sudden death format starting on offense has a significantly higher chance of winning. We examine two proposals to improve the ex post fairness: auctions and divide-and-choose. We find the auction to provide a better outcome than the divide-and-choose rule in general when the teams have asymmetric assessments about how the overtime game may unfold. The result has broad implications for resource division when individuals do not have complete information about the objects being divided.