The Effects of Managerial Turnover: Evidence from Coach Dismissals in Italian Soccer Teams

In this paper sport data are used to study the effects of manager replacement on firm performance. Using match results of the major Italian soccer league (“Serie A”) we analyze the effects of coach (manager) changes in terms of team performance. From our preliminary estimates, including year and team fixed effects, it emerges that changing the coach produces a positive effect on a number of measures of team performance. However, this effect turns out to be statistically insignificant once we take into account the fact that the firing of a coach is not an exogenous event, but it is triggered by a “dip” in team performance. Using as an instrument for coach change the number of remaining matches in the season (which is a proxy for the residual length of the coach contract) Two-Stages Least Squares estimations do not show any significant effect of coach change on team performance.