ABSTRACT

Research question

In European men’s club football, competitive balance is decreasing. Review articles have concluded that the empirical studies do not provide a unanimous answer to the question whether this decrease leads to lower utility for the fans. This paper investigates whether the conclusion of the reviews is (still) correct.

Research methods

Qualitative analysis is applied to get a better interpretation of the results of the empirical studies.

Results and findings

There are three types of uncertainty of outcome: short-term, seasonal, and long-term, with possible different dimensions within one type. A possible interpretation of the literature is the following: a decrease in one or two types of uncertainty of outcome, or a certain dimension, can lead to serious reductions in welfare, while the conclusion may be different for other types or dimensions. Several studies suggest that a decrease in (a certain type of) competitive balance has no effect on welfare, or just a small effect, if the competitive balance remains above some minimum level whereas once the competitive balance is below this level, further decreases in it result in serious welfare reductions. Taking these and other points into account, the review concludes that it is highly plausible that the present level of competitive balance is below the welfare-maximising level in most competitions at least, and any further decrease in it will seriously reduce welfare.

Implications

Policies that improve competitive balance will plausibly also improve welfare.

Research contribution

Compared to other review studies, this paper pays more attention to the reasons why different empirical studies get different results, which enables a less ambiguous conclusion.

中文翻译：

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欧洲男足的竞争平衡与需求：文献回顾

摘要

研究问题

在欧洲男子俱乐部足球中，竞争平衡正在减少。评论文章得出的结论是，对于这种减少是否会导致粉丝效用降低这一问题，实证研究并未提供一致的答案。本文调查评论的结论是否（仍然）正确。

研究方法

定性分析用于更好地解释实证研究的结果。

结果和发现

结果的不确定性分为三种类型：短期、季节性和长期，一种类型可能具有不同的维度。对文献的一种可能解释是：减少一种或两种结果不确定性，或某个维度，会导致福利严重下降，而其他类型或维度的结论可能不同。几项研究表明，如果竞争平衡保持在某个最低水平之上，（某种类型的）竞争平衡的减少对福利没有影响，或者影响很小，而一旦竞争平衡低于该水平，它会进一步降低导致福利严重下降。考虑到这些和其他要点，

启示

改善竞争平衡的政策似乎也会改善福利。

研究贡献

与其他综述研究相比，本文更关注不同实证研究得出不同结果的原因，从而使结论更加明确。