nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2014‒03‒30
four papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa

  1. Are restrictions of competition by sports associations horizontal or vertical in nature? By Budzinski, Oliver; Szymanski, Stefan
  2. The competition economics of financial fair play By Budzinski, Oliver
  3. Sports and Regional Growth in Sweden - Is a successful professional sports team good for regional economic growth? By Värja, Emelie
  4. Competitive balance and attention level effects: Theoretical considerations and preliminary evidence By Pawlowski, Tim; Budzinski, Oliver

  1. By: Budzinski, Oliver; Szymanski, Stefan
    Abstract: In this paper, we discuss from an economic perspective two alternative views of restrictions of competition by sports associations. The horizontal approach views such restrictions as an agreement among the participants of a sports league with the sports association merely representing an organization executing the horizontal cooperation. In contrast, the vertical approach views the sports association as being a dominant upstream firm enjoying a monopoly position on the market stage for competition organizing services, an important input for the actual product - the sports game. Taking the recent financial fair play (FFP) initiative by UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) as an example, we demonstrate that the different views lead to different assessments of restrictive effects and, thus, matter for competition policy decisions. The economic story of the potential restrictive effect of FFP on players' and player agents' income may fit more plausibly to the horizontal approach, whereas the potentially anticompetitive foreclosure and deterrence effects of FFP may be economically more soundly reasoned by taking the vertical view. --
    Keywords: European competition policy,sports economics,financial fair play,horizontal agreements,vertical restrictions,European football,antitrust
    JEL: K21 L41 L42 L44 L83
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:86&r=spo
  2. By: Budzinski, Oliver
    Abstract: This paper provides an economic analysis of the competition effects of UEFA's financial fair play regulations. It concludes that the restrictive effects of the break-even rule cannot be justified by a legitimate objective defense (according to European competition policy) because significant financial problems due to overinvestment are not inherent to European football. --
    Keywords: financial fair play,sports economics,competition economics,European competition policy,football, soccer,overinvestment,rat race
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:85&r=spo
  3. By: Värja, Emelie (Örebro University School of Business)
    Abstract: This study investigates whether net inbound migration and per capita income growth of a municipality is affected when a local sports team enters or exits the premium national leagues in ice hockey or soccer in Sweden. Local governments frequently support a local professional team through direct subsidies; beneficial funding of arenas, etc., which often is motivated by alleged, positive externalities through effects on the attractiveness of the municipality as a leisure-travel destination, or place for living or doing business, which ultimately is supposed to enhance the tax base and the tax revenues of the local government. Previous literature on such effects is based on simple models estimated on a selected sample of cities and without consideration of spatial interdependencies between local areas. We carry out a simultaneous estimation of spatial paneldata models of income per capita growth and net migration rates using annual data from all Swedish municipalities from 1995-2011 (except for four municipalit that have changed borders). With this richer modeling framework we still find no evidence of a positive relationship from performance of a local team on any of these two variables.
    Keywords: sports; growth; spatial econometrics; regional growth
    JEL: H71 J61 L83
    Date: 2014–03–21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2014_003&r=spo
  4. By: Pawlowski, Tim; Budzinski, Oliver
    Abstract: We try to better understand possible reasons for deviations between statistically-measured competitive balance (CB) and perceived CB. Moreover, we suggest answers to the following questions: are there specific dimensions of CB that are perceived to be significantly less balanced in the Danish Superligaen compared to the other two leagues? Are there objective measures that confirm the fans' perception or does OCB in general deviate from PCB? --
    Keywords: competitive balance,sports economics,behavioural economics,mid-term outcome uncertainty,fan perception
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:84&r=spo

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