The Economics of Football

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Sep 20, 2001 - Business & Economics - 458 pages
This book presents the first detailed economic analysis of professional football at club level, using a combination of economic reasoning and statistical and econometric analysis. Most of the original empirical research reported in the book is based on English club football. A wide range of international comparisons help emphasise both the broader relevance as well as the unique characteristics of the English experience. Specific topics include: the links between football clubs financial strength and competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome; the determinants of professional footballers compensation; measuring the football manager s contribution to team performance, the determinants of managerial change, and its effects on team performance; patterns of spectator demand for attendance; predicting match results, betting on football, and the market in football clubs company shares. The book concludes with an extended discussion of the major economic policy issues currently facing football s legislators and administrators worldwide.

About the author (2001)

Steven Dobson is Senior Lecturer in Economics at Queen's University, Belfast. He has held positions at the Universities of Hull, Leeds and Reading in the UK and at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. He is the joint author of Introduction to Economics (Oxford University Press, 1999) and a co-author of Microeconomics (McGraw-Hill, 1995). Most of his research focuses on the economics of professional football and he has published numerous articles in journals including Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Economic History Review, The Statistician, Managerial and Decision Economics, Regional Studies, Journal of Economic Studies and Journal of Sports Economics. John Goddard is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at University of Wales, Swansea. He has also held positions at University of Leeds, Abertay, University of Dundee and University of Wales Bangor. Research interests are the economics of sport and industrial organisation. He has published numerous articles in academic journals including International Journal of Industrial Organization, Economics Letters, Economic History Review, Managerial and Decision Economics, The Statistician, Bulletin of Economic Research and Applied Economics.