Financial doping and financial fair play in European Club football competitions

Addresses the emerging area of manipulation in professional sports by bringing a collection of original contributions together in one volume for the first time Provides an interdisciplinary approach, combining economic, business administrative and legal issues, that enables a complete overview for any scholar interested in the global economics of, and manipulation of sport, in general Presents contributions from world class scholars that are well known in their area

The Optimality of Heterogeneous Tournaments

We investigate the effect of employee heterogeneity on the incentive to put forth effort in a market-based tournament. Employers use the tournament's outcome to estimate employees' abilities and accordingly condition their wage offers. Employees put forth effort, because by doing so they increase the probability of outperforming the rival, thereby increasing their ability assessment and thus the wage offer. We demonstrate that the tournament outcome provides more information about employees' abilities in case they are heterogeneous. Thus, employees get a higher incentive to affect the tournament outcome, and employers find it optimal to hire heterogeneous contestants

Misconduct and Leader Behaviour in Contests New Evidence from European Football

This paper provides an empirical investigation of severe misconducts in contests based on data from European football championships. We differentiate between two types of severe misconducts both resulting in a yellow card, namely dissents with the referee and other misconducts, and between sanctioned behaviour of team captains and other players. Confirming the existing literature, we find that sabotage against the opponent is used more frequently by players from teams with lower ability. In addition, we find that dissents with the referee are significantly more likely in the case of an unfavourable score. We further find that captains, in contrast to other players, seem to use sabotage less impulsively and more strategically, as they do not seem to participate in retaliatory escalation of conflict behaviour. However, compared to other players, captains increase their sabotage in important matches

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Plan de negocios de una consultora de colocación de trainees “N & M Asesores"

TesisEl presente trabajo se desarrolló dentro del campo de estudio de los Recursos Humanos, dando origen a nuestro plan de negocios “N & M ASESORES” cuya propuesta se basa en la búsqueda de talento en jóvenes estudiantes universitarios para su colocación en prácticas pre - profesionales. La investigación inicia en los programas de intercambio cultural, dirigido a estudiantes universitarios y/o de instituto que desean vivir una experiencia de inmersión cultural durante sus vacaciones de verano (de diciembre a marzo). El programa ofrece a los estudiantes la posibilidad de realizar trabajos remunerados por un periodo y desarrollar las denominadas “soft skills” (independencia, responsabilidad, capacidad de decisión, seguridad en sí mismos, etc.). El perfil para aplicar a este tipo de programas es ser estudiante universitario, tener entre 18 y 27 años y dominar el idioma extranjero, esto último depende del país donde desea ir

Why football players may benefit from the ‘shadow of the transfer system’

Transfer restrictions have a long tradition in professional sports but came under heavy attack in recent years (e.g. Bosman ruling, Monti system). Based on a bargaining model with stochastic player productivity, we show that less restrictive transfer rules reallocate ex post bargaining power from players to clubs. This reallocation is efficient and in the ex ante self-interest of players. The right to charge transfer fees enables clubs to insure their players. The players, in turn, benefit by converting risky future income into riskless current income. Overall, player utility is higher under more than under less restrictive transfer rules