Articles in this issue:

• Financial Fair Play in European Club Football: What Is It All About?

  Egon Franck

  The new UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations have encountered stiff criticism. The concerns are that the new regulations may harm football in three different ways: By forgoing the potential benefits from substantial injections of “external” money into payrolls, by restricting competition in the player market without at the same time achieving benefits from more balanced competition, and by creating some sort of barrier to entry which could “freeze” the current hierarchy of clubs. It is the purpose of this paper to take these concerns as a starting point for discussing...Read more

• Fair is Foul: A Critical Analysis of UEFA Financial Fair Play

  Stefan Szymanski

  This paper critically analyzes the rules of the UEFA financial regulatory system for football clubs known as Financial Fair Play (FFP). I argue that the objectives of FFP are not really fairness but financial efficiency and that the rules are unlikely to achieve efficiency. I also contend that even from the perspective of fairness, the rules do little more than substitute one form of inequality for another. Finally I briefly assess the implications for the competition law challenge that was launched in May 2013 against the FFP breakeven rule.Read more

• A Bivariate Probit Examination of Financial and Volunteer Problems of Non-Profit Sport Clubs

  Dennis Coates

  Pamela Wicker

  Svenja Feiler

  Christoph Breuer

  Previous research has examined the financial and volunteer problems of non-profit sport clubs in an isolated manner and has neglected the influence that sponsorship and subsidy funding, which we term as external funding, may have on both problems. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of this external funding on financial and volunteer problems, and the relationship between both types of problems. Using data from a survey of sport clubs in Germany, a bivariate probit model is estimated. The results provide evidence that both problems are interrelated. Clubs relying on...Read more

• The Impact of Atmospheric Conditions on the Baseball Totals Market

  Rodney J. Paul

  Andrew P. Weinbach

  Chris Weinbach

  A study of the physics of baseball has shown that air density plays a significant role in the distance a batted baseball will travel. Air density is a function of altitude, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. This paper tests if air density impacts the totals market in Major League Baseball by influencing the number of runs in a game above and beyond the betting market total. Through regression analysis and betting simulations of the 2012 season, it is shown that air density has an inverse relationship with total runs scored and simple betting strategies are constructed that...Read more

• Unemployment Duration and Sport Participation

  Charlotte Cabane

  In this study we use the German Socio-Economic Panel to evaluate the impact of leisure sport participation on the unemployment duration. The empirical literature on sport participation has focused on labor market outcomes and job quality while the impact of this activity on job search has not been studied. Sports participation fosters socialization which, through the networking effect, accelerates the exit from unemployment to employment. Furthermore, sporty people are expected to have valuable non-cognitive skills (self-confidence, persistence, team spirit). In addition, they tend to be...Read more