Nonprofit decision making and social regulation: the intended and unintended consequences of Title IX

Theoretical and empirical models explore the effects of a gender equity reg ulation imposed on an athletic director at a nonprofit university. The beha vioral model predicts a decrease in the total number of sports teams and a net decrease in the number of men's teams, suggesting that the regulation h as unintended consequences. The empirical analysis confirms the theory and identifies the size and prestige of the athletic department and the quality of the existing women's sports program, as important factors affecting the probability that men's sports teams were eliminated to comply with the reg ulation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classifica tion: L31; L51; D23.