nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2021‒01‒11
three papers chosen by
Humberto Barreto
DePauw University

  1. The Rainmaker?! The impact of investors on transfer fees in the English Premier League By Richau, Lukas; Follert, Florian; Frenger, Monika; Emrich, Eike
  2. Die Auswirkungen von COVID-19 auf die Transferaktivitäten der Fußballvereine der fünf europäischen Top-Ligen im Sommer 2020 By Frick, Bernd; Mainus, David; Schumacher, Paul
  3. Jim Crow in the Saddle: The Expulsion of African American Jockeys from American Racing By Michael Leeds; Hugh Rockoff

  1. By: Richau, Lukas (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg); Follert, Florian (Seeburg Castle University); Frenger, Monika (Saarland University); Emrich, Eike (Saarland University)
    Abstract: Transfer fees in European football have experienced a rapid increase in the past years. Simultaneously, an increasing number of domestic and recently foreign investors – who are assumed to further increase team spending in European football – have entered the football market by becoming club owners. In light of these developments, fears associated with an increasing influence of foreign (majority) investors from the financial as well as the emotional fan perspective have increased. Given the rather limited number of empirical studies focusing on the impact of investors on transfer fees, we shed further light on this topic. Based on a data sample from 2012/13 to 2018/19 for the English Premier League, we estimate OLS regressions and quantile regressions to analyze the effects of ownership concentration and investor origin on the amount of individual transfer fees. While we do not find strong evidence that ownership concentration increases the willingness to pay, we find fairly consistent results that foreign investors are willing to pay a premium compared to domestic investors. Our results also indicate that especially foreign investors who own a majority share of a club have a positive effect on transfer fees for the upper quantiles.
    Keywords: Sports finance; property rights; club ownership; investors; football transfer market
    JEL: D23 G32 Z22 Z23
    Date: 2021–01–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:vhsuwp:2021_187&r=all
  2. By: Frick, Bernd; Mainus, David; Schumacher, Paul
    Abstract: Die Studie analysiert das Transferverhalten der Fußballvereine der englischen Premier League, der spanischen Primera División, der deutschen Bundesliga, der italienischen Serie A und der französischen Ligue 1 im Transferfenster des Sommers 2020. Unter der Annahme, dass sich die Vereinseinnahmen aus Sponsoring, dem Verkauf von Medienrechten und Spieltagseinnahmen seit Beginn der COVID-19-Krise im März 2020 verringert haben, wurde untersucht, ob sich die verschlechterte wirtschaftliche Situation der Vereine auf ihr Transferverhalten auswirkt. Dafür werden die Transferaktivitäten jedes Vereins in den fünf europäischen Top-Ligen in den Sommertransferfenstern von 2017, 2018, 2019 und 2020 analysiert und durch ein OLS- als auch ein RE-Modell dargestellt. Mit Bezug auf das Transferfenster im Sommer 2017 als Referenzjahr sanken die Ausgaben für Transfers um etwas mehr als 22 Mio. EUR von 2019 auf 2020, unter den gleichen Konditionen sanken die Einnahmen von 2019 auf 2020 um 19 Mio. EUR. Neben den Unterschieden in Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Vereine zwischen den fünf Ligen beeinflussen zusätzlich die Teilnahme an der Champions bzw. Europa League und die Vorjahresplatzierung die Transfermarktaktivität der Vereine. @This study analyzes the transfer activity of the football clubs of the English Premier League, the Spanish Primera División, the German Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A, and the French Ligue 1 in the transfer window of summer 2020. Under the assumption of shrinking revenues for football clubs from sponsoring, matchday revenue, and sale of media rights since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in March 2020, the paper investigates the consequences of the clubs' weaker economic condition on their behavior on the transfer market. Therefore, each club's transfer activities in the transfer window of summer 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 were considered and described by an OLS and RE model. In reference to the transfer summer of 2017, the expenditures for player purchases in all leagues dropped from 2019 to 2020 by more than 22 million EUR. Under the same conditions, the revenues from player sales declined by 19 million EUR. Besides the differences in revenues and expenses of clubs between the five leagues, the Champions or Europa League qualification and the previous year's rank also influence the club's transfer activity.
    Keywords: Fußball,Transfermarkt,COVID-19,Premier League,Serie A,Bundesliga,Ligue 1,Primera División,football,transfer market
    JEL: Z2 Z20 Z23 Z29
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwipp:n130&r=all
  3. By: Michael Leeds; Hugh Rockoff
    Abstract: Between the Civil War and the turn of the nineteenth century there were many prominent African American jockeys. They rode winners in all of the Triple-Crown races. But at the turn of the century they were forced out. This paper uses a new data set on the Triple-Crown races, which includes odds on all of the entrants in all of the races, to explore the causes of the expulsion of African American jockeys. Our conclusion is that although there is some evidence of prejudice by owners and the betting public – for the latter in the Kentucky Derby although not in the other legs of the Triple Crown – historical evidence indicates that the final push came from the White jockeys who were determined to “draw the color line.”
    JEL: N11 N3
    Date: 2020–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28167&r=all

This nep-spo issue is ©2021 by Humberto Barreto. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.