Incentive conflicts show up in the sports world, too. This question looks at three such ways. (You need not know much about professional sports to answer this question.)

a) Off-season training requires a lot of time and effort, yet is vital for many sports, such as soccer and football, for conditioning and injury prevention. First, describe the basic incentive conflict that arises between the team and the player over off-season training. Then, using a supply/demand type graph for effort, identify the optimal level of off-season training. Finally, explain why an athlete on a long-term, guaranteed contract could choose a level of off-season training that differs from the optimum.

b) In football, playing harder helps your team win, but also leads to more injuries. (To that playerfor this problem, set aside the injury risk to others.) The optimal degree of effort properly balances the two. This is a potential source of an incentive conflict between the team and the worker. First, describe this incentive conflict. Then determine whether it is likely to be stronger when the player is on a short-term contract or a long-term contract, and explain. (It may help to know that NFL players on contract are typically paid while injured.)

c) Basketball consists of a few fundamental skills: passing, dribbling, shooting, defense. Yet basketball teams dont just pay their players per shot made, shot blocked, shooting percentage, etc. Give one good reason why this would be unwise (economically).