Title IX and the Allocation of Resources to Women's and Men's Sports

Abstract

As a result of Title IX, there has been a large increase in participation of women in college sports, while men’s participation has remained roughly constant. Using a standard contest success function, we analyze the resource allocation decision between women’s and men’s sports before and after the Title IX regulation is imposed. If the number of women’s and men’s sports is held constant, the model predicts an increase in resources devoted to women’s sports which is matched by a one-for-one decrease in resources devoted to men’s sports after Title IX is implemented. Since this prediction is counterfactual, we next consider the possibility that women’s sports are added and men’s sports dropped. We find that one possible response to Title IX is an increase in resources devoted to women’s sports with no change in resources devoted to men’s sports.

Keywords: Title IX, Gender Equity, Sports Contest

JEL Classification: J16, J18, I2, K3