Bill Gerrard

Estimating Coaching Efficiency in Professional Team Sports: Evidence from English Association Football

This study provides a review of the literature on sporting production functions with an emphasis on different input-output specifications and alternative estimation procedures. Empirical evidence is reported for English association football on the robustness of estimates of coaching efficiency to changes in estimation methods and the definition of team performance and playing talent inputs. A measure of player quality based on predicted start-of-season transfer values is developed. It is found that the estimation of coaching efficiency is sensitive to the choice of time-invariant efficiency models versus time-varying and inefficiency effects models. It is also found that the results are little affected by different measures of team performance but are highly sensitive to the use of an ex post financial expenditure input measure. Ex ante input measures based on start-of-season player characteristics or predicted transfer values are recommended as more appropriate on both theoretical and empirical grounds.

Stochastic Frontiers and the Temporal Structure of Managerial Efficiency in English Soccer

This article provides estimates of technical efficiency for a panel of managers in English soccer’s Premier League for the period 1992 to 1998. In contrast to other studies of sporting team production, efficiency is estimated at the level of the individual manager rather than the club. Fixed and random effects models are used to generate managerial efficiency scores assuming that efficiency is both time invariant and time varying. The efficiency rankings of the different time invariant models are very similar. In contrast, the temporal structure and the estimation procedures of the time-varying models produce very different results. There is evidence that managerial efficiency has fallen over the sample period.

Economic impact of national sporting success: evidence from the London stock exchange.

In this article strong association is reported between the performance of the England football team and subsequent daily changes in the FTSE 100 index, representing the price of shares in the 100 largest companies traded on the London stock exchange.

Keynes's General Theory: Interpreting the Interpretations

This paper considers the confusion generated by the interpretations of Keyness GENERAL THEORY. Drawing on the study of hermeneutics, it is argued that much of the confusion is caused by the adoption of presuppositions, often implicitly, about the nature of interpretation. Another contributory factor is the failure to distinguish between meaning as the aim of interpretation and significance as the aim of application. It is concluded that the existence of multiple interpretations should not be regarded as a problem but as evidence of the high reference power of Keyness GENERAL THEORY through its ability to disclose different possible ways of understanding the macro economy. Copyright 1991 by Royal Economic Society.

The Impact of Road Pricing and Workplace Parking Levies on the Urban Economy: Results from a Survey of Business Attitudes

This paper reports the results of a survey of business attitudes to current transport problems and their likely responses to the introduction of road user charging (RUC) and workplace parking levies (WPLs). A sample of 152 responses from private sector businesses in three UK historic cities is analysed. Businesses perceive traffic congestion and inadequate public transport provision as key problems. Businesses typically expect the introduction of RUC and WPLs to lead to some non-economic benefits to the city but negative impacts on the urban economy and their own business performance. It is also found that there is a significant threat of businesses relocating away from the urban economy as a response to traffic demand management policies.

Testing for monopoly rents in the market for playing talent – Evidence from English professional football

Using the team performance‐club profit framework, a formal model is developed of the determination of the transfer fees paid by football clubs when players are traded for cash. It is argued that transfer fees can involve monopoly rents; the selling club extracts a share of the nonnegative differential between its reservation price and the buying club’s maximum bid‐price. It is shown that a necessary condition for the presence of monopoly rents can be established by testing whether buying‐club characteristics are jointly significant determinants of transfer fees after controlling for player characteristics, time effects and selling‐club characteristics. Using a sample of 1,350 English professional football transfer fees covering the period June 1990 to August 1996, it is found that monopoly rents may exist but the degree of monopoly rents may differ with the size of the transfer fee.

Media Ownership of Pro Sports Teams: Who are the Winners and Losers?

This paper analyses the media ownership of professional sports teams. The theory of vertical integration is used to identify internal efficiency gains, lower uncertainty and increased market power as general explanations. The industryspecific reasons are examined, particularly the importance of securing access to broadcasting rights. The potential implications for teams, leagues and fans are discussed. It is suggested that media ownership of teams may undermine the sporting and financial viability of leagues thus necessitating intervention by sports administrators and government regulators.

Keynes, the Keynesians and the Classics: A Suggested Interpretation

Mainstream interpretations of John Maynard Keyness General Theory are surveyed. An alternative postclassical interpretation is proposed. Keynes is interpreted as treating classical theory as the valid theory of allocation but this type of theory is of limited relevance for macroanalysis. The productive sector is characterized by the utilization mode of activity regulated by the nonallocative multiplier process. However, the financial sector is allocative and Keynes proposed the allocative theory of liquidity preference. It is argued that this dual conception of the macroeconomy is suggestive of the need for a more realistic method in macroeconomics. Copyright 1995 by Royal Economic Society.

The determination of transfer fees in English nonleague football

In recent years a number of studies have analysed the player transfer market in English professional football. This paper examines whether similar factors operate to determine transfer fees in the semiprofessional, or nonleague, game. An empirical model of the nonleague player transfer market is developed in which observed transfer fees are determined by player characteristics, time effects, selling-club characteristics and buying-club characteristics. Using data on 114 transfer fees covering the period 1988 to 1997, we find evidence that the data generating process for transfer fees is broadly similar in both professional and nonleague football.

A new approach to measuring player and team quality in professional team sports

The key resource in professional sports teams is the available stock of playing talent but it is difficult to measure. Previous research has mostly relied on ex post measures of player talent, using either player performance or player costs. This paper proposes an alternative ex ante approach to construct composite player and team quality indices using observable player characteristics prior to performance. The relevant player characteristics and weightings are derived by applying hedonic‐pricing methods to financial expenditure on playing talent. The approach is illustrated using data for the FA Premier League in England in season 1998/99.