Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Professional football: historical development and economic structure
- 3 Competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome
- 4 The labour and transfer markets
- 5 The contribution of the football manager
- 6 Managerial change and team performance
- 7 The demand for football attendance
- 8 Information transmission and efficiency: share prices and fixed-odds betting
- 9 Professional football: current issues and future prospects
- List of references
- Index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Professional football: historical development and economic structure
- 3 Competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome
- 4 The labour and transfer markets
- 5 The contribution of the football manager
- 6 Managerial change and team performance
- 7 The demand for football attendance
- 8 Information transmission and efficiency: share prices and fixed-odds betting
- 9 Professional football: current issues and future prospects
- List of references
- Index
Summary
Academic interest in the economics of professional team sports dates back as far as the mid-1950s. Since then, many books and journal articles have been written on the subject. Much of the academic literature originates in the USA. In common with trends that are evident throughout the subject discipline of economics, research on the economics of sport has become increasingly sophisticated, both theoretically and in its use of econometric methodology, especially in recent times. Papers on the economics of sport now appear regularly in many of the leading economics journals, and most economists would agree that in view of its social, cultural and economic importance, professional sport is a legitimate area of interest for both theoretical and empirical researchers. Indeed, many would argue that the unique configurations of individual and team incentives, and the interactions between co-operative and competitive modes of behaviour that professional team sports tend to generate, make this particularly fertile territory in which to explore the perennial questions about incentives, effort, risk and reward which lie at the heart of all areas of economic inquiry.
This volume makes a contribution to the burgeoning literature on the economics of team sports by providing the first comprehensive survey of research that is focused on professional football at club level. A survey of the economics of professional football seems appropriate at the present time, if not long overdue. The spectacular recent increase in the size of football's audience is, of course, a strong motivating factor.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Economics of Football , pp. 1 - 21Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001