I develop a new mechanism for risk allocation and information speculation called a dynamic pari-mutuel market (DPM). A DPM acts as hybrid between a pari-mutuel market and a continuous double auction (CDA), inheriting some of the advantages of both. Like a pari-mutuel market, a DPM offers infinite buy-in liquidity and zero risk for the market institution; like a CDA, a DPM can continuously react to new information, dynamically incorporate information into prices, and allow traders to lock in gains or limit losses by selling prior to event resolution. The trader interface can be designed to mimic the familiar double auction format with bid-ask queues, though with an addition variable called the payoff per share. The DPM price function can be viewed as an automated market maker always offering to sell at some price, and moving the price appropriately according to demand. Since the mechanism is pari-mutuel (i.e., redistributive), it is guaranteed to pay out exactly the amount of money taken in. I explore a number of variations on the basic DPM, analyzing the properties of each, and solving in closed form for their respective price functions.

A well-documented anomaly in racetrack betting is that the expected return per dollar bet on a horse increases with the probability of the horse winning. This so-called favorite-longshot bias is at odds with the presumptions of market efficiency. We show that the bias is consistent with betters having myopic beliefs. If betters neglect the fact that the popularity of a horse indicates that other people have favorable information about that horse, then they bet less on the favorite than they should. This myopia is related to, though stronger than, the judgmental bias that leads to the winner's curse in auctions.

Citing recent successes in forecasting elections, movies, products, and other outcomes, prediction market advocates call for widespread use of market-based methods for government and corporate decision making. Though theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that markets do often outperform alternative mechanisms, less attention has been paid to the magnitude of improvement. Here we compare the performance of prediction markets to conventional methods of prediction, namely polls and statistical models. Examining thousands of sporting and movie events, we find that the relative advantage of prediction markets is surprisingly small, as measured by squared error, calibration, and discrimination. Moreover, these domains also exhibit remarkably steep diminishing returns to information, with nearly all the predictive power captured by only two or three parameters. As policy makers consider adoption of prediction markets, costs should be weighed against potentially modest benefits.

Portfolio Choice and Cross-section of Expected Returns ” and I would like to thank the seminar participants

The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) for sport betting states that all publicly available information should be mirrored in betting lines, so there should be no bias of betting outcomes. Because of several similarities to financial markets, the sport betting market is thought of as a fair market. This investigation tests the EMH in the National Football League betting market from the 2002 to 2009 seasons. This study also examines whether there is a bias after a bye week in terms of the EMH. For this investigation we utilized a significance test for proportion and logistic regression. The findings suggest that, among other biases, favorites and favorites on the road won statistically more bets than their opponents after their bye week. This study provides relevant evidence of inefficiencies within NFL betting. ii I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family who have made it possible for me to be here today. Without them, this would not be possible. iii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the help of many people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Doctor Scott A. Tainsky, who guided me with valuable insight and support, and read my numerous revision throughout this thesis. Also I