Can we be satisfied with our football team? Evidence from spanish professional football.

This paper assesses the sporting performance of Spanish professional football teams at competition level, namely, League, King’s Cup and European competitions (Champions League and UEFA Cup). Then, the gap between the result obtained by a team in a given competition and that expected according to its potential is used as a proxy of the degree of satisfaction that fans should feel: the narrower the gap the greater the level of satisfaction. Regarding methodology, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions are used. Results reveal that most teams perform rather differently across competitions, the lower average performance corresponding to the King’s CupSpanish football League; specific-competition performance; Data Envelopment Analysis.

Calculating shadow wages for family labour in agriculture : An analysis for Spanish citrus fruit farms

This paper deals with the calculation of shadow wages for family labour in agriculture. Using the existence of a duality between input distance and cost functions, we use the former to derive individual labour shadow prices for a sample of Spanish citrus fruit producers. Our results show that the average shadow price representing the opportunity cost of family labour employed onfarm, is lower than the average market wage rate paid for hired labour. We relate this finding to a strategy of outsourcing of many growing tasks that is currently pursued by farmers to overcome the problems posed by a suboptimal farm size.shadow prices, duality, distance functions, on-farm labour opportunity cost, outsourcing

The importance of time in referee home bias due to social pressure. Evidence from Spanish football

This paper analyses referee home bias due to social pressure with data from the matches played in the First Division of the Spanish football league between the 2002/03 and 2009/10 seasons. Finally, our main conclusion is that the time the referee has to make a decision does affect the final outcome; while there is no referee home bias when a free kick is awarded, in the case of booking players, when the referee has more time to make a decision, social pressure can influence the final outcome in favour of the home team.Social pressure; crowd effect; referee home bias; sports economics.

Can we be satisfied with our football team? Evidence from spanish professional football

This paper assesses the sporting performance of Spanish professional football teams at competition level, namely, League, King’s Cup and European competitions (Champions League and UEFA Cup). Then, the gap between the result obtained by a team in a given competition and that expected according to its potential is used as a proxy of the degree of satisfaction that fans should feel: the narrower the gap the greater the level of satisfaction. Regarding methodology, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions are used. Results reveal that most teams perform rather differently across competitions, the lower average performance corresponding to the King’s Cup

Measuring environmental performance in the treatment of municipal solid waste: the case of the European Union-28

©2021. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This document is the Submitted, Accepted, Published, version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Ecological Indicators. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107328This paper proposes a measure of environmental performance in the treatment of municipal solid waste, which is defined as a ratio between a composite indicator of waste treated through environmentally desirable operations –recycling and recovery in our case study– and a composite indicator of waste treated through undesirable operations –landfill and incineration. Moreover, it contributes both overall and treatment-specific indicators of performance. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques are used to compute the environmental performance indicators and they are illustrated with an empirical assessment of the environmental performance of the European Union-28 (EU-28) members in their treatment of municipal waste, with data for the year 2017. Our results point to a worryingly low average level of performance, with the best performers being mainly Nordic and Central European countries such as Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Finland and Denmark; at the opposite end of the spectrum, environmental performance in the treatment of waste is particularly low in most of the Eastern European countries that joined the EU-28 from the 2000s, and some Southern member states. The determinants of performance are also investigated, the main finding being a positive and statistically significant association between environmental performance in municipal waste treatment and the level of economic development

DOES SERVICE QUALITY MATTER IN MEASURING PERFORMANCE OF WATER UTILITIES?

Quality is a dimension of water services that has been repeatedly omitted in the study of performance of water utilities. In this paper, we make use of Data Envelopment Analysis techniques (DEA) to compute both conventional quantity-based and quality-adjusted indicators of technical efficiency for a sample of Spanish water utilities. The key assumptions are that a lack of quality (bad quality) can be regarded as a bad output, and the existence of a trade-off between quantity and quality. Our main results indicate that quality matters in measuring technical performance, the difference between conventional and quality-adjusted evaluations representing the opportunity cost of maintaining quality. Averages and distribution functions significantly differ between both assessments of performance, although water utilities do not seem to rank differently.water utilities; quality; Data Envelopment Analysis.

Are the determinants of CO2 emissions converging among OECD countries?

This paper studies convergence in CO2emission intensity (CO2 emissions over GDP) among OECD countries over the period 1960-2008 based on its determinants, namely, energy intensity (energy consumption over GDP) and the so-called carbonisation index (CO2 emissions over energy consumption). We apply the Phillips and Sul (2007) methodology, which tests for the existence of convergence clubs. Our results highlight that differences in emission intensity convergence are more determined by differences in convergence of the carbonisation index rather than by differences in the dynamic convergence of energy intensity

The importance of time in referee home bias due to social pressure: evidence from spanish football

The importance of time in referee home bias due to social pressure. Evidence from Spanish football Abstract: This paper analyses referee home bias due to social pressure with data from the matches played in the First Division of the Spanish football league between the 2002/03 and 2009/10 seasons. Finally, our main conclusion is that the time the referee has to make a decision does affect the final outcome; while there is no referee home bias when a free kick is awarded, in the case of booking players, when the referee has more time to make a decision, social pressure can influence the final outcome in favour of the home team

Eco-Efficiency and Convergence in OECD Countries

This paper assesses the convergence in eco-efficiency of a group of 22 OECD countries over the period 1980–2008. In doing so, three air pollutants representing the impact on the environment of economic activities are considered, namely, carbon dioxide ( CO2 ), nitrogen oxides ( NOX ) and sulphur oxides ( SOX ); furthermore, eco-efficiency scores at both country and air-pollutant-specific level are computed using Data Envelopment Analysis techniques. Then, convergence is evaluated using the recent approach by Phillips and Sul Econometrica 75:1771–1855 (2007), which tests for the existence of convergence groups. First, we find that eco-efficiency has improved over the period, with the exception of NOX emissions. Second, Switzerland is the most eco-efficient country, followed by some Scandinavian economies, such as Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Denmark. In contrast, Southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Greece, in addition to Hungary, Turkey, Canada and the United States, are among the worst performers. Finally, we find that both the most eco-efficient countries and the worst tend to form clubs of convergence

Does service quality matter in measuring performance of water utilities?

Quality is a dimension of water services that has been repeatedly omitted in the study of performance of water utilities. In this paper, we make use of Data Envelopment Analysis techniques (DEA) to compute both conventional quantity-based and quality-adjusted indicators of technical efficiency for a sample of Spanish water utilities. The key assumptions are that a lack of quality (bad quality) can be regarded as a bad output, and the existence of a trade-off between quantity and quality. Our main results indicate that quality matters in measuring technical performance, the difference between conventional and quality-adjusted evaluations representing the opportunity cost of maintaining quality. Averages and distribution functions significantly differ between both assessments of performance, although water utilities do not seem to rank differently