The Contribution of Managers to Organizational Success: Evidence from German Soccer

Muehlheusser G, Schneemann S, Sliwka D, Wallmeier N. The Contribution of Managers to Organizational Success: Evidence from German Soccer. JOURNAL OF SPORTS ECONOMICS. 2018;19(6):786-819.We study the impact of managers on the success of professional soccer teams using data from the German Bundesliga, where we are exploiting the high turnover rate of managers between teams to disentangle the managers' contributions. Teams employing a manager from the top of the ability distribution gain on average considerably more points than those employing a manager from the bottom. Moreover, estimated abilities have significant predictive power for future performance. Managers also affect teams' playing style. Finally, teams whose manager has been a former professional player perform worse on average compared to managers without a professional player career

Kovarianzen vs. Merkmale: Was erklärt den Querschnitt der deutschen Aktienmarktrenditen?

The characteristics book-to-market equity ratio, size and momentum are highly correlated with the average returns of common stocks. Fama and French (J Financ Econ 33(1):3–56, 1993), (J Finance 50(1):131–155, 1995) and (J Finance 51(1):55–84, 1996) argue (for size and the book-to-market equity ratio) that the relation between returns and characteristics arises because the characteristics are proxies for exposures to common risk factors. We examine the question whether the characteristics or the covariance structure of returns explain the cross-sectional dispersion in German stock market returns. Our results suggest that widely accepted factors SMB, HML or WML are not priced.27509Apri