IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-18-00915.html

NFL Salary Cap Allocation: Matching Theory with Observed Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Chris Jeffords

    (IUP)

  • Todd Potts

    (IUP)

Abstract

Using a representative agent optimization model, we assess the degree to which average team salary cap shares devoted to offense and defense in the National Football League (NFL) are consistent with the shares predicted by a constrained optimization model. Results from a balanced fixed-effects panel for all thirty-two NFL teams over a 13-year period (2002-2009 and 2012-2016) indicate that the model is effective at matching the salary cap allocation between offense and defense, and closely matches the ratio of offensive to defensive cap shares that we see in practice. Overall, the model fits well with observed NFL managerial oversight in this respect.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Jeffords & Todd Potts, 2019. "NFL Salary Cap Allocation: Matching Theory with Observed Behavior," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(1), pages 270-279.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-18-00915
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2019/Volume39/EB-19-V39-I1-P29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Breunig & Bronwyn Garrett-Rumba & Mathieu Jardin & Yvon Rocaboy, 2014. "Wage dispersion and team performance: a theoretical model and evidence from baseball," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 271-281, January.
    2. Simmons, Rob & Berri, David J., 2011. "Mixing the princes and the paupers: Pay and performance in the National Basketball Association," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 381-388, June.
    3. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    4. Alberto Abadie & Susan Athey & Guido W Imbens & Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2023. "When Should You Adjust Standard Errors for Clustering?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 1-35.
    5. Borghesi, Richard, 2008. "Allocation of scarce resources: Insight from the NFL salary cap," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 536-550.
    6. Karl W. Einolf, 2004. "Is Winning Everything?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 5(2), pages 127-151, May.
    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. Brandyn F. Churchill & Laura E. Henkhaus & Emily C. Lawler, 2025. "Effect of vaccine recommendations on consumer and firm behavior," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 125-150, January.
    2. Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso & Marco Di Domizio, 2021. "Relative wages, payroll structure and performance in soccer. Evidence from Italian Serie A (2007-2019)," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    3. Samuel Nocito & Marcello Sartarelli & Francesco Sobbrio, 2021. "A Beam of Light: Media, Tourism & Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 9055, CESifo.
    4. Burlig, Fiona & Preonas, Louis & Woerman, Matt, 2020. "Panel data and experimental design," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    5. Jushan Bai & Sung Hoon Choi & Yuan Liao, 2021. "Feasible generalized least squares for panel data with cross-sectional and serial correlations," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 309-326, January.
    6. Christian Kümpel, 2019. "Do financial incentives influence the hospitalization rate of nursing home residents? Evidence from Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(11), pages 1235-1247, November.
    7. Nocito, Samuel & Venturini, Alessandra, 2025. "Inter-institutional cooperation and migrants' financial education: An Italian case study," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    8. James G. MacKinnon, 2019. "How cluster-robust inference is changing applied econometrics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(3), pages 851-881, August.
    9. Matthias Breuer & Ed Dehaan, 2024. "Using and Interpreting Fixed Effects Models," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 62(4), pages 1183-1226, September.
    10. Bharti, Nitin Kumar & Roy, Sutanuka, 2023. "The early origins of judicial stringency in bail decisions: Evidence from early childhood exposure to Hindu-Muslim riots in India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    11. Bruno Ferman, 2023. "Inference in difference‐in‐differences: How much should we trust in independent clusters?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 358-369, April.
    12. repec:ags:aaea22:343637 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Seonho Shin, 2021. "Were they a shock or an opportunity?: The heterogeneous impacts of the 9/11 attacks on refugees as job seekers—a nonlinear multi-level approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2827-2864, November.
    14. Marco Di Domizio & Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso, 2022. "Payroll dispersion and performance in soccer: A seasonal perspective analysis for Italian Serie A (2007–2021)," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 513-525, July.
    15. Sumit Agarwal & Meghana Ayyagari & Renáta Kosová, 2024. "Minimum Wage Increases and Employer Performance: Role of Employer Heterogeneity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(1), pages 225-254, January.
    16. Deng, Yue & Feng, Aiya & Hu, Dezhuang, 2025. "Gender earnings gap in Chinese firms: Can it be narrowed by industrial robots?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. Weiss, Amanda, 2024. "How Much Should We Trust Modern Difference-in-Differences Estimates?," OSF Preprints bqmws, Center for Open Science.
    18. Chiara Tomasi & Fabio Pieri & Valentina Cecco, 2023. "Red tape and industry dynamics: a cross-country analysis," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(2), pages 283-320, June.
    19. Sparber, Chad, 2019. "Substitution between groups of highly-educated, foreign-born, H-1B workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    20. Bruno Ferman, 2019. "Assessing Inference Methods," Papers 1912.08772, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2025.
    21. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1867 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Ghimire Keshar M., 2021. "Supply of immigrant entrepreneurs and native entrepreneurship," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Paradigm & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-42, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-18-00915. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.