The relationship between payroll and performance disparity in major league baseball: an alternative measure

This paper introduces an alternative method of measuring competitive balance in major league baseball and employs it to assess both payroll (talent) disparity and performance (wins) disparity for 30 selected years between 1929 and 2002. Attention is devoted to the impact of two critical events in the evolution of the game: the influx of non-white players and the advent of free agency. The joint effect of these events was to increase payroll disparity while simultaneously reducing performance disparity. A single equation regression model found the effect of payroll disparity on wins disparity in the post free agency period to be positive and significant. The increasing disparity in payrolls since the mid 1990s, particularly in the American League, suggests that the luxury tax has been ineffectual and that greater performance disparity can be expected in the near future.

The adjusted churn: an index of competitive balance for sports leagues based on changes in team standings over time

This paper introduces an index called the adjusted churn, designed to measure competitive balance in sports leagues based on changes in team standings over time. This is a simple yet powerful index that varies between zero and one. A value of zero indicates no change in league standings from year to year and therefore minimal competitive balance. A value of one indicates the maximum possible turnover in league standings from year to year and therefore a high level of competitive balance. Application of this index to Major League Baseball suggests that there has been a significant decline in competitive balance in MLB since the 1990s with the most severe decline occurring in the American League. This index also indicates minimal competitive balance for the American League Eastern Division of MLB from 1998 to 2003

Assessing alternative competitive balance measures for sports leagues: a theoretical examination of standard deviations, gini coefficients, & the index of dissimilarity

This note provides a theoretical analysis of the use of standard deviations, Gini coefficients, and the Index of Dissimilarity to assess competitive balance in sports leagues. Limitations are identified for all three techniques. Each of these techniques is found to be affected by the introduction of more teams, unbalanced schedules, and inter-league play.

The factors affecting team performance in the NFL: does off-field conduct matter?

This paper contains a statistical analysis of the factors that contribute to team wins in the NFL. The variables examined are divided into offensive, defensive, and special teams categories. In addition, net turnovers, penalties, and off-field conduct, as measured by team arrests, are also included as independent variables. The results show that the quarterback rating has the largest impact on team wins followed by field goal percentage, opponent's passing yards per game, and opponent''s rushing yards per game. Team arrests were not found to have a statistically significant impact on team performance.

Cost effectiveness of bio-ethanol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Greece

The purpose of this study is to evaluate ethanol cost- effectiveness with regards to carbon dioxide emissions. Actually, bio-fuel production is only viable thanks to the tax credit policy resulting in economic ‘deadweight’ loss. The environmental performance is assessed under the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework. Economic burden to society to support the activity divided by avoided CO2 equivalent emissions indicates the bio-ethanol cost effectiveness. Agricultural feedstock supply that comprises of sugarbeets, grains and industrial processing sub-models are articulated in a regional sector model. The maximization of total welfare determines optimal crop mix for farmers and the best configurations for industry. This is illustrated for bio-ethanol produced by the ex-sugar industry in Thessaly, Greece. Life cycle activity analysis showed that, at the optimum, CO2 emission is reduced between 1 and 1.5 t of carbon dioxide equivalent per ton of ethanol. The unitary cost falls in the range of 100 to 250 euro per ton of CO2 and it is remarkably dependent on the agricultural policy scenario.Cost effectiveness, ethanol, mathematical programming, life cycle assessment, greenhouse gases

Cities with poviat status in Poland and their financial condition

The study, devoted to the assessment of the financial condition of cities with poviat status (CWPS) in Poland, aims (i) to position cities with poviat status in the structure of local government and (ii) to examine and assess the average financial condition of city with poviat status in Poland in the spatial aspect, using standard measures (measures referring to the budget result, income potential and the amount of expenses) and those of the authors’ (reflecting the possibility of satisfying the needs of the local government community). The study uses the methods of descriptive statistics. Detailed analyses were carried out on the basis of the authors’ own calculations, using an MS Excel spreadsheet, and the calculated measures were presented for two deliberately selected years (2010 and 2019). The analyses present different pictures of the financial conditions: while the values produced by standard measures in 2019 compared to 2010 clearly indicate an improvement in the financial condition of analysed cities in Poland, the values derived from the authors’ measures do not confirm this. Changes in the values of both groups of indicators are spatially diverse. Both groups, however, indicate that there are voivodeships whose financial condition improved more in 2019 compared to 2010 (classical indicators) or deteriorated to a lesser extent (authors’ indicators) than other voivodeships. This applies to the provinces of Western and Central Poland. CWPS in these regions, due to their location and impact in the region, as well as their attractiveness as places of employment doing business: 1) have been better prepared to start new investments and incur further commitments; 2) attract high school and university graduates and investors; 3) have a large stock of real estate, including extensive infrastructure; and 4) are less dependent on transfers from the state budget. Opracowanie poświęcone jest ocenie kondycji finansowej miast na prawach powiatowych w Polsce. Jego celem jest: 1) umiejscowienie miast na prawach powiatowych w strukturze samorządu terytorialnego oraz 2) zbadanie i ocena średniej kondycji finansowej miasta na prawach powiatu w Polsce w aspekcie przestrzennym, z wykorzystaniem miar standardowych (miary odnoszące się do wyniku budżetowego, potencjału dochodowego i wysokości wydatków) i autorskich (odzwierciedlające możliwość zaspokojenia potrzeb społeczności samorządowej). W badaniu wykorzystano metody statystyki opisowej. Szczegółowe analizy przeprowadzono na podstawie własnych obliczeń, z wykorzystaniem arkusza kalkulacyjnego MS Excel, a obliczone miary przedstawiono za dwa celowo wybrane lata (2010 i 2019). Analizy pokazują inny obraz kondycji finansowej, który pojawia się na podstawie zastosowanych standardowych miar i proponowanych wskaźników autorskich. O ile wartości standardowych miar w roku 2019 w porównaniu z 2010 jednoznacznie wskazują na poprawę kondycji finansowej analizowanych miast w Polsce, o tyle wartości miar autorskich tego nie potwierdzają. Zmiany wartości obu grup wskaźników są zróżnicowane przestrzennie. Obie grupy wskazują jednak, że są województwa, w których kondycja finansowa miast na prawach powiatu w roku 2019 w porównaniu z 2010 poprawiła się bardziej (wskaźniki klasyczne) lub pogorszyła się w mniejszym stopniu (wskaźniki autorskie) niż w innych województwach. Dotyczy to województw Polski Zachodniej i Środkowej. Miasta na prawach powiatu w tych regionach, ze względu na położenie i wpływ w regionie, a także ich atrakcyjność jako miejsca pracy i prowadzenia działalności gospodarczej: 1) są lepiej przygotowane do rozpoczęcia nowych inwestycji i zaciągania dalszych zobowiązań; 2) przyciągają absolwentów szkół średnich i uczelni wyższych oraz inwestorów; 3) posiadają duży zasób nieruchomości, w tym rozbudowaną infrastrukturę; 4) są mniej zależne od transferów z budżetu państwa

Mental Health, Well-Being, and Psychological Flexibility in the Stressful Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study investigated the relationships between selected emotional aspects of mental ill-health (depression, anxiety, and stress, DASS) and mental well-health (well-being) experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical model of the study was based on Martin Seligman’s positive psychology and PERMA theory and Paul Wong’s Existential Positive Psychology 2.0 Theory, which postulates that negative experiences contribute to well-being and personal growth. The static approach was complemented by exploring the mediating role of psychological flexibility (defined as acceptance and action in the current situation) in the relationship between negative emotions and well-being. The data were collected during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic from 277 participants (221 women), aged M = 33.83, SD = 12.77. The results confirmed that negative emotions correlated negatively with various domains of well-being (PERM), except for accomplishment (completing tasks and fulfill daily responsibilities). Moreover, negative emotions were related to the general well-being through psychological flexibility in that higher depression, anxiety, and stress were associated with lower psychological flexibility, which decreased general well-being. Finally, negative emotions were shown to be beneficial, having an adaptive effect that allows individuals to maintain their ability to cope with the situation, reach goals, and fulfill daily duties and responsibilities despite critical, stressful situation (like the COVID-19 pandemic) that limit their psychological flexibility. This observation confirmed the positive potential of negative aspects of life postulated within Existential Positive Psychology

A new method for comparing rankings through complex networks: Model and analysis of competitiveness of major European soccer leagues

In this paper, we show a new technique to analyze families of rankings. In particular, we focus on sports rankings and, more precisely, on soccer leagues. We consider that two teams compete when they change their relative positions in consecutive rankings. This allows to define a graph by linking teams that compete. We show how to use some structural properties of this competitivity graph to measure to what extend the teams in a league compete. These structural properties are the mean degree, the mean strength, and the clustering coefficient. We give a generalization of the Kendall's correlation coefficient to more than two rankings. We also show how to make a dynamic analysis of a league and how to compare different leagues. We apply this technique to analyze the four major European soccer leagues: Bundesliga, Italian Lega, Spanish Liga, and Premier League. We compare our results with the classical analysis of sport ranking based on measures of competitive balance.This paper was partially supported by Spanish MICINN Funds and FEDER Funds MTM2009-13848, MTM2010-16153 and MTM2010-18674, and Junta de Andalucia Funds FQM-264.Criado Herrero, R.; García González, E.; Pedroche Sánchez, F.; Romance, M. (2013). A new method for comparing rankings through complex networks: Model and analysis of competitiveness of major European soccer leagues. Chaos. 23(4):1-10. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4826446S110234Dobson, S., & Goddard, J. (2009). The Economics of Football. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511973864Kendall, M. G., & Smith, B. B. (1939). The Problem of $m$ Rankings. The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 10(3), 275-287. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177732186KENDALL, M. G. (1938). A NEW MEASURE OF RANK CORRELATION. Biometrika, 30(1-2), 81-93. doi:10.1093/biomet/30.1-2.81Fagin, R., Kumar, R., Mahdian, M., Sivakumar, D., & Vee, E. (2006). Comparing Partial Rankings. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 20(3), 628-648. doi:10.1137/05063088xLegendre, P. (2005). Species associations: the Kendall coefficient of concordance revisited. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics, 10(2), 226-245. doi:10.1198/108571105x46642Emond, E. J., & Mason, D. W. (2002). A new rank correlation coefficient with application to the consensus ranking problem. Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 11(1), 17-28. doi:10.1002/mcda.313Blumm, N., Ghoshal, G., Forró, Z., Schich, M., Bianconi, G., Bouchaud, J.-P., & Barabási, A.-L. (2012). Dynamics of Ranking Processes in Complex Systems. Physical Review Letters, 109(12). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.109.128701Radicchi, F. (2011). Who Is the Best Player Ever? A Complex Network Analysis of the History of Professional Tennis. PLoS ONE, 6(2), e17249. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017249Chartier, T. P., Kreutzer, E., Langville, A. N., & Pedings, K. E. (2011). Sensitivity and Stability of Ranking Vectors. SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, 33(3), 1077-1102. doi:10.1137/090772745Park, J., & Newman, M. E. J. (2005). A network-based ranking system for US college football. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, 2005(10), P10014-P10014. doi:10.1088/1742-5468/2005/10/p10014Callaghan, T., Mucha, P. J., & Porter, M. A. (2007). Random Walker Ranking for NCAA Division I-A Football. The American Mathematical Monthly, 114(9), 761-777. doi:10.1080/00029890.2007.11920469Motegi, S., & Masuda, N. (2012). A network-based dynamical ranking system for competitive sports. Scientific Reports, 2(1). doi:10.1038/srep00904Pawlowski, T., Breuer, C., & Hovemann, A. (2010). Top Clubs’ Performance and the Competitive Situation in European Domestic Football Competitions. Journal of Sports Economics, 11(2), 186-202. doi:10.1177/1527002510363100A. Feddersen and W. Maennig, “ Trends in competitive balance: Is there evidence for growing imbalance in professional sport leagues?” Hamburg contemporary economic discussions No. 01/2005, University of Hamburg, 2005.Pedroche Sánchez, F. (2010). Competitivity groups on social network sites. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 52(7-8), 1052-1057. doi:10.1016/j.mcm.2010.02.031PEDROCHE, F. (2012). A MODEL TO CLASSIFY USERS OF SOCIAL NETWORKS BASED ON PAGERANK. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, 22(07), 1250162. doi:10.1142/s0218127412501623Pedroche, F., Moreno, F., González, A., & Valencia, A. (2013). Leadership groups on Social Network Sites based on Personalized PageRank. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 57(7-8), 1891-1896. doi:10.1016/j.mcm.2011.12.026García, E., Pedroche, F., & Romance, M. (2013). On the localization of the personalized PageRank of complex networks. Linear Algebra and its Applications, 439(3), 640-652. doi:10.1016/j.laa.2012.10.051BOCCALETTI, S., LATORA, V., MORENO, Y., CHAVEZ, M., & HWANG, D. (2006). Complex networks: Structure and dynamics. Physics Reports, 424(4-5), 175-308. doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2005.10.009Humphreys, B. R. (2002). Alternative Measures of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues. Journal of Sports Economics, 3(2), 133-148. doi:10.1177/152700250200300203M. Kringstad, “ Competitive balance in complex professional sports leagues,” Doctoral thesis (The University of Leeds. Leeds University Business School, 2008).Owen, P. D., Ryan, M., & Weatherston, C. R. (2007). Measuring Competitive Balance in Professional Team Sports Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Review of Industrial Organization, 31(4), 289-302. doi:10.1007/s11151-008-9157-

The financial condition of communes in Poland (2010 vs. 2019)

PURPOSE: The examination and assessment of the financial condition of communes in Poland in the spatial aspect, using the standard indicators related to financial independence and financial burdens imposed on their budgets by current expenditure, and the authors’ indicators related to the possibility of communes to satisfy the requirements of residents.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study used the methods of descriptive statistics. Detailed analyses were carried out based on the authors’ calculations using MS Excel.FINDINGS: The financial condition of communes in Poland is varied when interpreted in terms of time and spatially, when measured with standard indicators used by, among others, the Ministry of Finance in Poland, and with the measures proposed by the authors, it differs, and therefore the changes in the finances of these units are assessed differently. Also, the variations in the values of the standard indicators do not explicitly indicate the direction of changes of the financial condition of communes.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: State institutions in their work on the changes in the system of revenue in LGUs in Poland, aimed at adjusting the amounts of the financial resources available to them to the range of tasks allocated for realization. Local authorities in the annually determined amounts of financial resources which they can implement to realize their tasks, having included the burdens resulting from the long-term contractual obligations they are bound by.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Expanding the research on the financial condition of LGUs by approaching this matter through the prism of indicators reflecting the possibilities of local authorities to define the amounts and the directions of their budgetary expenditure.peer-reviewe