IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/buecrs/v75y2023i4p1209-1241.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign players, team production, and technical efficiency: Evidence from European soccer

Author

Listed:
  • David Boto‐García
  • Carlos Varela‐Quintana
  • Alvaro Muñiz

Abstract

As on‐field success is nowadays the main objective of European soccer clubs, good management needs to extract the highest sport success from the squad talent at hand. Because teams differ in their quality, performance needs to be compared with the best practice of comparable units. One remarkable source of heterogeneity across teams is the squad composition, which can produce gains from diversity together with communication costs. The paper studies the efficiency in sporting performance of soccer teams, paying attention to how the number of foreign players relates to productive inefficiency. Using data for 146 teams in the top 5 European leagues during 10 seasons, we estimate a double heteroskedastic True Random Effects Stochastic Frontier team production function. We find that (i) the number of passes, ball recoveries, and shots from the penalty area improve team efficiency, and (ii) a higher number of foreign players increase inefficiency. Our findings suggest that gains from squad diversity might be offset by communication costs.

Suggested Citation

  • David Boto‐García & Carlos Varela‐Quintana & Alvaro Muñiz, 2023. "Foreign players, team production, and technical efficiency: Evidence from European soccer," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 1209-1241, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:buecrs:v:75:y:2023:i:4:p:1209-1241
    DOI: 10.1111/boer.12407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/boer.12407
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/boer.12407?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peeters, Thomas, 2018. "Testing the Wisdom of Crowds in the field: Transfermarkt valuations and international soccer results," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 17-29.
    2. Marko Terviö, 2006. "Transfer Fee Regulations and Player Development," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(5), pages 957-987, September.
    3. Selçuk Özaydın & Murat Donduran, 2020. "Efficiency analysis of social performance – the case of Turkish super league," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 391-409, September.
    4. Elizabeth Lyons, 2017. "Team Production in International Labor Markets: Experimental Evidence from the Field," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 70-104, July.
    5. Alex Krumer & Michael Lechner, 2018. "Midweek Effect On Soccer Performance: Evidence From The German Bundesliga," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 193-207, January.
    6. Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio & Stefan Szymanski, 2009. "Goal! Profit Maximization Versus Win Maximization in Soccer," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 34(1), pages 45-68, February.
    7. Changjing Zhou & Alberto Lorenzo & Miguel-Ángel Gómez & José M. Palao, 2020. "Players’ match demands according to age and playing position in professional male soccer players," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 389-405, May.
    8. Fiona Carmichael & Dennis Thomas & Robert Ward, 2000. "Team performance: the case of English Premiership football," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 31-45.
    9. R. Todd jewell & David J. Molina, 2004. "Productive Efficiency and Salary Distribution: The Case of US Major League Baseball," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(1), pages 127-142, February.
    10. Fiona Carmichael & Giambattista Rossi & Denis Thomas, 2017. "Production, Efficiency, and Corruption in Italian Serie A Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(1), pages 34-57, January.
    11. R. Todd Jewell, 2017. "Technical efficiency with multi-output, heterogeneous production: a latent class, distance function model of english football," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 37-50, August.
    12. Peter Dawson & Stephen Dobson & Bill Gerrard, 2000. "Estimating Coaching Efficiency in Professional Team Sports: Evidence from English Association Football," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 47(4), pages 399-421, September.
    13. Luis Garicano & Ignacio Palacios-Huerta & Canice Prendergast, 2005. "Favoritism Under Social Pressure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 208-216, May.
    14. Lawrence Hadley & Marc Poitras & John Ruggiero & Scott Knowles, 2000. "Performance evaluation of National Football League teams," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 63-70.
    15. Guohua Feng & Todd Jewell, 2021. "Productivity and efficiency at english football clubs: a random coefficient approach," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 68(5), pages 571-604, November.
    16. Rosen, Sherwin & Sanderson, Allen, 2001. "Labour Markets in Professional Sports," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(469), pages 47-68, February.
    17. Mickaël Terrien & Wladimir Andreff, 2020. "Organisational efficiency of national football leagues in Europe," Post-Print hal-03206959, HAL.
    18. Markus Kern & Bernd Süssmuth, 2005. "Managerial Efficiency in German Top League Soccer: An Econometric Analysis of Club Performances On and Off the Pitch," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 6(4), pages 485-506, November.
    19. K. Hadri & C. Guermat & J. Whittaker, 2003. "Estimation of technical inefficiency effects using panel data and doubly heteroscedastic stochastic production frontiers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 203-222, January.
    20. Mustafa U. Karakaplan & Levent Kutlu, 2017. "Handling Endogeneity in Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 889-901.
    21. Bernd Frick & Robert Simmons, 2008. "The impact of managerial quality on organizational performance: evidence from German soccer," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 593-600.
    22. Ana Pérez-González & Pablo Carlos & Elisa Alén, 2022. "An analysis of the efficiency of football clubs in the Spanish First Division through a two-stage relational network DEA model: a simulation study," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 3089-3112, July.
    23. Dennis Wilson & Yung-Hsiang Ying, 2003. "Nationality preferences for labour in the international football industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(14), pages 1551-1559.
    24. Bucciol, Alessandro & Hu, Alessio & Zarri, Luca, 2019. "The effects of prior outcomes on managerial risk taking: Evidence from Italian professional soccer," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 75(PB).
    25. Michel Beine & Silvia Peracchi & Skerdilajda Zanaj, 2021. "Genetic Diversity and Performance: Evidence from Fooball Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 9188, CESifo.
    26. Jorge Tovar, 2020. "Performance, Diversity And National Identity Evidence From Association Football," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(2), pages 897-916, April.
    27. Leo Kahane, 2005. "Production Efficiency and Discriminatory Hiring Practices in the National Hockey League: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 27(1), pages 47-71, August.
    28. Rohde, Marc & Breuer, Christoph, 2018. "Competing by investments or efficiency? Exploring financial and sporting efficiency of club ownership structures in European football," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 563-581.
    29. Willam Greene, 2005. "Fixed and Random Effects in Stochastic Frontier Models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 7-32, January.
    30. Richard A. Hofler & James E. Payne, 2006. "Efficiency in the National Basketball Association: a stochastic frontier approach with panel data," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 279-285.
    31. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "A Market Test for Discrimination in the English Professional Soccer Leagues," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 6, pages 136-150, Palgrave Macmillan.
    32. Federico Belotti & Silvio Daidone & Giuseppe Ilardi & Vincenzo Atella, 2013. "Stochastic frontier analysis using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 13(4), pages 718-758, December.
    33. Stelios Roupakias & Spiridoula Dimou, 2020. "Impact of cultural diversity on local labor markets. Evidence from Greece's “age of mass migration”," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(2), pages 282-304, March.
    34. Scully, Gerald W, 1974. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 915-930, December.
    35. Bernd Frick & Franziska Prockl, 2018. "Information Precision In Online Communities: Player Valuations On Www.Transfermarkt.De," Working Papers Dissertations 37, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    36. Peter Arcidiacono & Josh Kinsler & Joseph Price, 2017. "Productivity Spillovers in Team Production: Evidence from Professional Basketball," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 191-225.
    37. Bernd Frick & Young Lee, 2011. "Temporal variations in technical efficiency: evidence from German soccer," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 15-24, February.
    38. Carlos Pestana Barros & Peter Wanke & Otávio Figueiredo, 2015. "The Brazilian Soccer Championship: an efficiency analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(9), pages 906-915, February.
    39. Ceren Ozgen, 2021. "The economics of diversity: Innovation, productivity and the labour market," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1168-1216, September.
    40. Edward P. Lazear, 1999. "Culture and Language," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 95-126, December.
    41. Benno Torgler & Sascha Schmidt, 2007. "What shapes player performance in soccer? Empirical findings from a panel analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(18), pages 2355-2369.
    42. Villa, G. & Lozano, S., 2016. "Assessing the scoring efficiency of a football match," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 255(2), pages 559-569.
    43. Francesco Addesa & Matteo Pazzona & Giambattista Rossi, 2022. "Migrant diversity and team performance in a high‐skilled labour market," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 365-384, August.
    44. Jondrow, James & Knox Lovell, C. A. & Materov, Ivan S. & Schmidt, Peter, 1982. "On the estimation of technical inefficiency in the stochastic frontier production function model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 233-238, August.
    45. Mickaël Terrien & Wladimir Andreff, 2020. "Organisational efficiency of national football leagues in Europe," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03206959, HAL.
    46. Kai Fischer & Justus Haucap, 2022. "Home advantage in professional soccer and betting market efficiency: The role of spectator crowds," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 294-316, May.
    47. Benno Torgler, 2004. "The Economics of the FIFA Football Worldcup," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 287-300, May.
    48. David Forrest & Robert Simmons, 2008. "Sentiment in the betting market on Spanish football," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 119-126.
    49. Steffen Herm & Hans-Markus Callsen-Bracker & Henning Kreis, 2014. "When the crowd evaluates soccer players’ market values: Accuracy and evaluation attributes of an online community," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 484-492, October.
    50. Swarnodeep Homroy & Kwok Tong Soo, 2020. "Team diversity and individual performance," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(4), pages 507-530, July.
    51. Luigi Buzzacchi & Federico Caviggioli & Francesco Luigi Milone & Davide Scotti, 2021. "Impact and Efficiency Ranking of Football Managers in the Italian Serie A: Sport and Financial Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(7), pages 744-776, October.
    52. Carlos P. Barros & Julio del Corral & Pedro García-del-Barrio, 2009. "Reply to Comment on ‘‘Identification of Segments of Soccer Clubs in the Spanish League First Division with a Latent Class Model’’," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(6), pages 660-666, December.
    53. Dale-Olsen, Harald & Finseraas, Henning, 2020. "Linguistic diversity and workplace productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    54. Alessandro Ghio & Massimo Ruberti & Roberto Verona, 2019. "Financial constraints on sport organizations’ cost efficiency: the impact of financial fair play on Italian soccer clubs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(24), pages 2623-2638, May.
    55. Julio del Corral & Andrés Maroto & Andrés Gallardo, 2017. "Are Former Professional Athletes and Native Better Coaches? Evidence From Spanish Basketball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(7), pages 698-719, October.
    56. Peter Dawson & Stephen Dobson, 2002. "Managerial efficiency and human capital: an application to English association football," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(8), pages 471-486.
    57. Young Lee, 2011. "Is the small-ball strategy effective in winning games? A stochastic frontier production approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 51-59, February.
    58. Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio & Francesc Pujol, 2007. "Hidden monopsony rents in winner-take-all markets-sport and economic contribution of Spanish soccer players," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 57-70.
    59. Bridgewater, Sue & Kahn, Lawrence M. & Goodall, Amanda H., 2011. "Substitution and complementarity between managers and subordinates: Evidence from British football," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 275-286, June.
    60. Fiona Carmichael & Ian McHale & Dennis Thomas, 2011. "Maintaining Market Position: Team Performance, Revenue And Wage Expenditure In The English Premier League," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(4), pages 464-479, October.
    61. Hofler, Richard A. & Payne, James E., 1997. "Measuring efficiency in the National Basketball Association1," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 293-299, August.
    62. David Boto-Garcìa & Alessandro Bucciol & Luca Zarri, 2020. "Managerial Beliefs and Firm Performance: Field Evidence from Professional Elite Soccer," Working Papers 19/2020, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    63. Mustafa U. Karakaplan, 2022. "Panel stochastic frontier models with endogeneity," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 22(3), pages 643-663, September.
    64. Carlos Pestana Barros & Stephanie Leach, 2007. "Technical efficiency in the English Football Association Premier League with a stochastic cost frontier," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(10), pages 731-741.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julio del Corral & Andrés Maroto & Andrés Gallardo, 2017. "Are Former Professional Athletes and Native Better Coaches? Evidence From Spanish Basketball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(7), pages 698-719, October.
    2. Andrés Picazo-Tadeo & Francisco González-Gómez, 2010. "Does playing several competitions influence a team’s league performance? Evidence from Spanish professional football," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 18(3), pages 413-432, September.
    3. Wen-Jhan Jane, 2013. "Overpayment and Reservation Salary in the Nippon Professional Baseball League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(6), pages 563-583, December.
    4. Francisco González-Gómez & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2010. "Can We Be Satisfied With Our Football Team? Evidence From Spanish Professional Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(4), pages 418-442, August.
    5. Fabíola Zambom-Ferraresi & Belén Iráizoz & Fernando Lera-López, 2019. "Are football managers as efficient as coaches? Performance analysis with and inputs in the Premier league," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 303-314, January.
    6. Wen-Jhan Jane & Wei-Hsin Kong & Yi-Hsiue Wang, 2010. "Individual efficiency and club performance: a panel analysis of professional baseball," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 363-372.
    7. Carlos Pestana Barros & Gaël Bertrand & Laurent Botti & Scott Tainsky, 2014. "Cost efficiency of French rugby clubs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(23), pages 2721-2732, August.
    8. Luigi Buzzacchi & Federico Caviggioli & Francesco Luigi Milone & Davide Scotti, 2021. "Impact and Efficiency Ranking of Football Managers in the Italian Serie A: Sport and Financial Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(7), pages 744-776, October.
    9. Carlos Pestana Barros & Nicolas Peypoch & Scott Tainsky, 2014. "Cost efficiency of French soccer league teams," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 781-789, March.
    10. J. Brandon Bolen & Jon Rezek & Joshua D. Pitts, 2019. "Performance Efficiency in NCAA Basketball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(2), pages 218-241, February.
    11. Del Corral, Julio, 2012. "Eficiencia en el deporte: Entrenadores en la Primera División del fútbol español 2009-2011/Efficiency in Sports: Coaches in the Spanish Football First Division 2009-2011," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 545-564, Agosto.
    12. Fiona Carmichael & Giambattista Rossi & Denis Thomas, 2017. "Production, Efficiency, and Corruption in Italian Serie A Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(1), pages 34-57, January.
    13. Young Hoon Lee, 2009. "Frontier Models and their Application to the Sports Industry," Working Papers 0903, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy), revised 2009.
    14. Bridgewater, Sue & Kahn, Lawrence M. & Goodall, Amanda H., 2009. "Substitution between Managers and Subordinates: Evidence from British Football," IZA Discussion Papers 4589, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Carlos Pestana Barros & Julio del Corral & Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio, 2008. "Identification of Segments of Soccer Clubs in the Spanish League First Division With a Latent Class Model," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(5), pages 451-469, October.
    16. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Garcia-del-Barrio, Pedro, 2008. "Efficiency measurement of the English football Premier League with a random frontier model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 994-1002, September.
    17. Bridgewater, Sue & Kahn, Lawrence M. & Goodall, Amanda H., 2011. "Substitution and complementarity between managers and subordinates: Evidence from British football," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 275-286, June.
    18. R. Todd Jewell, 2017. "Technical efficiency with multi-output, heterogeneous production: a latent class, distance function model of english football," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 37-50, August.
    19. Fiona Carmichael & Dennis Thomas, 2014. "Team performance: production and efficiency in football," Chapters, in: John Goddard & Peter Sloane (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football, chapter 10, pages 143-165, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. I. García-Sánchez, 2007. "Efficiency and effectiveness of Spanish football teams: a three-stage-DEA approach," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 15(1), pages 21-45, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:buecrs:v:75:y:2023:i:4:p:1209-1241. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0307-3378 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.