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on Sports and Economics |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Persson, Lars (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | The European football (soccer) market increasingly funnels rents to superstar players and intermediaries while weakening competitive balance. We trace this dynamic to two forces: (a) technological innovation that globalized broadcasting and magnified superstar returns, and (b) legal rulings boosting player mobility and causing bidding wars. The 2024 Diarra ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union further loosens transfer constraints and will likely intensify talent concentration at “superclubs”. The result is soaring salaries and transfer fees, persistent financial fragility among non-elite clubs, and growing predictability of match outcomes. We evaluate reform options that preserve Europe’s open-league tradition yet borrow from North American competitive-balance tools: greater revenue sharing, hard/soft salary caps, and draft-like mechanisms. These should be complemented by a “cartel tax” to fund youth sport, and club-governance codes plus credible financial-sustainability rules. |
| Keywords: | Bosman ruling; Competitive balance; Diarra ruling; Market integration; Sports industry; Talent development |
| JEL: | D33 D43 D63 J44 L50 L83 Z28 |
| Date: | 2026–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1548 |
| By: | Madeline Laire-Levrier (I2M - Institut de Mécanique et d'Ingénierie de Bordeaux - UB - Université de Bordeaux - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Arts et Métiers Sciences et Technologies); Carole Charbuillet (I2M - Institut de Mécanique et d'Ingénierie de Bordeaux - UB - Université de Bordeaux - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Arts et Métiers Sciences et Technologies); Carola Guyot Phung (I2M - Institut de Mécanique et d'Ingénierie de Bordeaux - UB - Université de Bordeaux - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Arts et Métiers Sciences et Technologies); Nicolas Perry (I2M - Institut de Mécanique et d'Ingénierie de Bordeaux - UB - Université de Bordeaux - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Arts et Métiers Sciences et Technologies) |
| Keywords: | déchet, plastique, circularité, REP, économie, ASL, circulaire, sport |
| Date: | 2025–09–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05356173 |
| By: | Liya WANG; Ritsu KITAGAWA; Takuya TAKAHASHI |
| Abstract: | Japanese professional speedboat racing is one of the few sports where men and women compete in the same race, though the gender balance is skewed in favor of men. The Japan Motor Boat Racing Association randomly assigns racers to either single-sex or mixed-sex races and implemented a policy raising the minimum weight for male racers from 51kg to 52kg after November 1, 2020. The random assignment and the exogenous policy shock enable us to shed light on affirmative action policy, which can be regarded as a practice that reduces competitive intensity for female racers and to explore how it affects their incentives to exert effort. We use start time as a proxy measure of effort, as it is an objective absolute measure that is highly correlated with placements, and we use advanced starts, which result in disqualification and are a representation of risk-taking in an attempt to shorten start time to as close to zero seconds as possible, as a measure of risk-taking. Using over 175, 000 female racer-race observations from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2022, we find that: (1) shifting from single-sex to mixed-sex races decreases the effort of middle- and low-ability female racers, while increasing the risk-taking behavior of high-ability female racers; (2) the policy change mitigates the discouragement effect on the effort of middle- and low-ability female racers when shifting from single-sex to mixed-sex races, whereas it has no effect on high-ability female racers; (3) overall, the affirmative action can promote the effort of female racers on average. |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:26003 |
| By: | Boczon, Marta (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School); Severgnini, Battista (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how regional economic conditions, birth timing, and institutional rules shape talent allocation into high-risk/high-reward payoff structure occupations. Using rich data on English-born professional footballers and exploiting exogenous variation from European Structural Funds in the United Kingdom (1990–2000), we show that improved local conditions reduced the share of summer-born children, who are disadvantaged by age-based cutoffs in youth academies but exhibit higher underlying talent. Although regional income per capita did not significantly change, fertility timing shifted, shrinking this high-potential group: players born after the intervention exhibit lower peak market values, reflecting how economic and institutional factors can misallocate talent. |
| Keywords: | Talent allocation; Early-life conditions; Birth-timing; Professional sports |
| JEL: | J13 J24 R11 Z22 |
| Date: | 2026–01–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cbsnow:2026_002 |
| By: | Olivier Boissin (CREG - Centre de recherche en économie de Grenoble - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes) |
| Abstract: | Ce tome III a pour objet la transmission des connaissances relatives au pilotage de l'innovation dans une filière de production industrielle. Sur la base d'un cas pratique sur les cycles de sport chez Décathlon, l'analyse englobe la conception, la production et la distribution de biens industriels commercialisés en grande série et cherchant à s'engager le mieux possible, ou le moins mal possible, dans une approche soutenable. |
| Keywords: | Développement durable, entreprise, innovation industrielle, vélo |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05392040 |