Evaluating Rent Dissipation in the Spanish Football Industry

Guido Ascari (1) , Philippe Gagnepain (2)

1 Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods
2 Departamento de Economía

This article proposes to evaluate empirically the consequences of the rent-seeking behavior of football clubs on their costs. The empirical work entails estimating a football wage, result, and demand system with data on clubs competing in the first and second Spanish leagues during the 1996-2003 seasons. The estimation sheds light on wage distortions that differ from 45% to 52% throughout the period considered. This provides an interesting illustration of the financial difficulties faced recently by many European football clubs.

Domaines: Economies et finances

Guido Ascari, Philippe Gagnepain. Evaluating Rent Dissipation in the Spanish Football Industry. Journal of Sports Economics, 2007, 8, pp.468-490. ⟨hal-00622841⟩