IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v57y2004i2p287-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economics of the FIFA Football Worldcup

Author

Listed:
  • Benno Torgler

Abstract

The expansion of economics to ‘non‐market topics’ has received increased attention in recent years. The economics of sports (football) is such a sub‐field. This paper reports empirical evidence of team and referee performances in the FIFA World Cup 2002. The results reveal that being a hosting nation has a significant impact on the probability of winning a game. Furthermore, the strength of a team measured with the FIFA World Ranking does not play the important role presumed, which indicates that the element of uncertainty is working. The findings also indicate that the influence of a referee on the game result should not be neglected. Finally, the previous World Cup experiences seem to have the strongest impact on referees' performances during the game. Die Erweiterung der Ökonomie auf ‘aussermarktliche Bereiche’ hat in den letzten Jahren gesteigerte Aufmerksamkeit erhalten. Die Ökonomik des Sports (Fussballs) ist solch ein Unterfeld. Das vorliegende Papier analysiert empirisch Team‐ und Schiedsrichterleistungen der FIFA Fussballweltmeisterschaft 2002. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass der Heimvorteil einen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Sieges ausübt. Zudem spielt die Stärke einer Mannschaft gemäss dem FIFA World Ranking nicht die Rolle, die man eigentlich erwarten würde, was darauf hindeutet, dass das Element der Unsicherheit funktioniert. Die Resultate zeigen auch, dass der Einfluss eines Schiedsrichters auf das Spielresultat nicht zu vernachlässigen ist. Schliesslich scheinen die früheren Weltmeisterschaftserfahrungen die Leistung des Schiedsrichters während des Spiels am meisten zu beeinflussen. L'extension des sciences économiques à des domaines ‘hors du marché’ a attiré une attention croissante au cours de ces dernières années. L'économie du sport (du football) est un tel domaine. Cet article analyse de façon empirique la performance des équipes ainsi que des arbitres pendant la Coupe du Monde FIFA en 2002. Les résultats montrent que l'avantage de jouer sur son propre terrain a une influence significative sur la probabilité de gagner un match. En outre, la force d'une équipe selon le classement mondial de la FIFA ne joue pas le rôle prépondérant que l'on pourrait supposer, démontrant ainsi que l'incertitude joue. Les résultats montrent également que l'influence de l'arbitre sur le résultat du match ne doit pas être négligée. Enfin, les expériences préalables en Coupe du Monde semblent être le facteur le plus influent sur la performance des arbitres pendant le match.

Suggested Citation

  • Benno Torgler, 2004. "The Economics of the FIFA Football Worldcup," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 287-300, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:57:y:2004:i:2:p:287-300
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0023-5962.2004.00255.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0023-5962.2004.00255.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.0023-5962.2004.00255.x?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. Robert Hoffmann & Lee Chew Ging & Bala Ramasamy, 2002. "The Socio-Economic Determinants of International Soccer Performance," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 5, pages 253-272, November.
    2. Ian Preston & Stefan Szymanski, 2000. "Racial Discrimination in English football," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 47(4), pages 342-363, September.
    3. Feess, Eberhard & Muehlheusser, Gerd, 2003. "Transfer fee regulations in European football," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 645-668, August.
    4. Mark Gius & Donn Johnson, 2000. "Race and compensation in professional football," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 73-75.
    5. Georg Stadtmann & Dirk Czarnitzki, 2002. "Uncertainty of outcome versus reputation: Empirical evidence for the First German Football Division," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 101-112.
    6. Sloane, Peter J, 1971. "The Economics of Professional Football: The Football Club as a Utility Maximiser," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 18(2), pages 121-146, June.
    7. Robert Houston & Dennis Wilson, 2002. "Income, leisure and proficiency: an economic study of football performance," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(14), pages 939-943.
    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. Benno Torgler, 2004. "?La Grande Boucle?: Determinants of Success at the Tour de France," CREMA Working Paper Series 2004-22, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA), revised May 2005.
    2. Benno Torgler, 2004. "The Determinants of Women?s International Soccer Performances," CREMA Working Paper Series 2004-19, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    3. Berlinschi, Ruxanda & Schokkaert, Jeroen & Swinnen, Johan, 2013. "When drains and gains coincide: Migration and international football performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Ferda HALICIOGLU, 2005. "Forecasting the Professional Team Sporting Events: Evidence from Euro 2000 and 2004 Football Tournaments," Industrial Organization 0508001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Benno Torgler, 2006. "Historical Excellence' in Soccer World Cup Tournaments: Empirical Evidence with Data from 1930 to 2002," Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport, Centro di diritto e business dello Sport, vol. 2(1), pages 101-117, Aprile.
    6. Dorian Owen, 2014. "Measurement of competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome," Chapters, in: John Goddard & Peter Sloane (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football, chapter 3, pages 41-59, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Markus LANG & Alexander RATHKE & Marco RUNKEL, 2010. "The Economic Consequences Of Foreigner Rules In National Sports Leagues," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 31, pages 47-64.
    8. Michael A. Leeds & Eva Marikova Leeds, 2009. "International Soccer Success and National Institutions," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(4), pages 369-390, August.
    9. Saumik Paul & Ronita Mitra, 2008. "How predictable are the FIFA worldcup football outcomes? An empirical analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(15), pages 1171-1176.
    10. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "The Economic Design of Sporting Contests," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Comparative Economics of Sport, chapter 1, pages 1-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    11. Eiji Yamamura, 2012. "Effect of Linguistic Heterogeneity on Technology Transfer: An Economic Study of FIFA Football Rankings," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 40(1), pages 85-99, March.
    12. Raul Caruso & Francesco Addesa & Marco Di Domizio, 2019. "The Determinants of the TV Demand for Soccer: Empirical Evidence on Italian Serie A for the Period 2008-2015," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(1), pages 25-49, January.
    13. Helmut Dietl & Egon Franck & Markus Lang & Alexander Rathke, 2010. "Organizational Differences between U.S. Major Leagues and European Leagues: Implications for Salary Caps," Working Papers 0035, University of Zurich, Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA).
    14. Jean-Marc Falter & Christophe Pérignon & Olivier Vercruysse, 2008. "Impact of Overwhelming Joy on Consumer Demand," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(1), pages 20-42, February.
    15. Ferda Halicioglu, 2005. "Can We Predict The Outcome Of The International Football Tournaments : The Case Of Euro 2000?," Microeconomics 0503008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Wladimir Andreff & Madeleine Andreff, 2015. "Economic prediction of sport performances from the Beijing Olympics to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa: the notion of surprising sporting outcomes," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01244495, HAL.
    17. Richard C.K. Burdekin & Michael Franklin, 2015. "Transfer Spending in the English Premier League: The Haves and the Have Nots," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 232(1), pages 4-17, May.
    18. Roberto Gásquez & Vicente Royuela, 2016. "The Determinants of International Football Success: A Panel Data Analysis of the Elo Rating," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 97(2), pages 125-141, June.
    19. Vicente Royuela & Roberto Gásquez, 2019. "On the Influence of Foreign Players on the Success of Football Clubs," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(5), pages 718-741, June.
    20. Marek M. Kaminski, 2022. "How Strong Are Soccer Teams? The “Host Paradox” and Other Counterintuitive Properties of FIFA’s Former Ranking System," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, 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:kyklos:v:57:y:2004:i:2:p:287-300. 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=0023-5962 .

    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.