The design of sports leagues has significant financial implications for the organisers and member teams and for the relative success or failure of the individual clubs. Using the Pro 14 rugby league as an example we show how the structure of the league has influenced the success of the league...

Paris Saint-Germain, one of France's top soccer clubs, was bought by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) in 2011. Since then the club's expenditure has risen precipitously as have its victories. In this paper we ask whether this represents value for money. We find in fact, that the efficiency of PSG...

The paper analyses factors influencing match attendance in the three main European rugby union leagues using data for over 4,000 fixtures over 15 seasons. The effect of competitive balance on attendance at sports events has received considerable attention in the literature. We find that (short-...

This paper calculates the NAIRU for the US in a framework that allows inflation and unemployment to be jointly endogenous. We define the NAIRU as being the component of actual unemployment that is uncorrelated with inflation in the long run. We use a structural VAR to estimate the NAIRU and core...

Low rates of inflation have been recorded in recent years, despite a decline in the unemployment rate. This phenomenon could be the result of a series of transitory shocks or of a permanent change in the structure of the economy leading to a lower NAIRU. The paper suggests that, while the NAIRU...

Rugby union only went professional in 1995, much later than other major team sports. League structures and arrangements regarding revenue sharing and salary caps differ between the three main European leagues. We consider the impact of these differences on competitive balance. In addition,...