Do sports analytics affect footballer pay?
Labor economists aspire to understand how workers' productivity impacts pay. While professional football is a well-established domain to explore this relationship, so far, research has relied on basic productivity measures. Football is now awash with advanced and granular performance metrics th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Behavioral Economics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frbhe.2024.1490871/full |
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| _version_ | 1850262902783606784 |
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| author | David Butler Alex Farnell Robert Simmons |
| author_facet | David Butler Alex Farnell Robert Simmons |
| author_sort | David Butler |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Labor economists aspire to understand how workers' productivity impacts pay. While professional football is a well-established domain to explore this relationship, so far, research has relied on basic productivity measures. Football is now awash with advanced and granular performance metrics that can allow a deeper understanding of the pay-performance relationship. We specify a salary model considering the newly available data and use sophisticated performance measures to explain contracted salaries in the English Premier League and Italian Serie A. We make a methodological breakthrough by identifying a sample of players who are in the first year of a new contract only. This results in a much tighter relationship between pay and performance. We estimate different salary equations using both basic and advanced performance statistics. Our main findings are, first, that few of our advanced performance metrics help to explain player salary and, second, that there is misalignment between individual performance determinants of team points and player salaries.JEL codesJ41, Z22 |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9be701e719bc462da6142c700ef3b1cd |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2813-5296 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Behavioral Economics |
| spelling | doaj-art-9be701e719bc462da6142c700ef3b1cd2025-08-20T01:55:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Behavioral Economics2813-52962024-12-01310.3389/frbhe.2024.14908711490871Do sports analytics affect footballer pay?David Butler0Alex Farnell1Robert Simmons2Department of Economics, University College Cork, Cork, IrelandDepartment of Economics, Maynooth University, Maynooth, IrelandManagement School, Lancaster University and University College Cork, Lancaster, United KingdomLabor economists aspire to understand how workers' productivity impacts pay. While professional football is a well-established domain to explore this relationship, so far, research has relied on basic productivity measures. Football is now awash with advanced and granular performance metrics that can allow a deeper understanding of the pay-performance relationship. We specify a salary model considering the newly available data and use sophisticated performance measures to explain contracted salaries in the English Premier League and Italian Serie A. We make a methodological breakthrough by identifying a sample of players who are in the first year of a new contract only. This results in a much tighter relationship between pay and performance. We estimate different salary equations using both basic and advanced performance statistics. Our main findings are, first, that few of our advanced performance metrics help to explain player salary and, second, that there is misalignment between individual performance determinants of team points and player salaries.JEL codesJ41, Z22https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frbhe.2024.1490871/fullsalarysports analyticsfootballsoccercontracts |
| spellingShingle | David Butler Alex Farnell Robert Simmons Do sports analytics affect footballer pay? Frontiers in Behavioral Economics salary sports analytics football soccer contracts |
| title | Do sports analytics affect footballer pay? |
| title_full | Do sports analytics affect footballer pay? |
| title_fullStr | Do sports analytics affect footballer pay? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do sports analytics affect footballer pay? |
| title_short | Do sports analytics affect footballer pay? |
| title_sort | do sports analytics affect footballer pay |
| topic | salary sports analytics football soccer contracts |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frbhe.2024.1490871/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidbutler dosportsanalyticsaffectfootballerpay AT alexfarnell dosportsanalyticsaffectfootballerpay AT robertsimmons dosportsanalyticsaffectfootballerpay |