Open Access
Differences in formal and informal sports participation at regional level in England
(Routledge, 2017) Kokolakakis, Themis; Castellanos García, Pablo; Lera López, Fernando; Economía; Ekonomia
The aim of the article is to provide a regional approach to analyse sports participation in two different contexts: organised/formal versus non-organised/informal participation, using Sport England’s Active People Survey national data set. We have estimated two models: first, a general model to explain differences in regional informal and formal participation rates; second, an econometric model dealing with formal participation at a regular frequency. The results emphasise the different roles played by some correlates depending on the context of sports participation under study. Only economic and cultural variables seem to have a general influence throughout all the sports participation contexts. The results reinforce the role played by sport supply and sport funding in some sports participation levels, offering interesting implications for sport policy. The urban environment, for example, appears to be positively related to the transition from informal to formal sport participation. The distinct analyses of the sports participation contexts provide the opportunity to evaluate ways of boosting participation as well as to suggest some interesting policy implications towards this aim. For example, sporting infrastructure is only influential for the transition from non-participation to formal participation, implying that in general the key question about sport funding and supply is not the amount of funds but rather the direction and aims of sport policy. Finally, the article offers some explanations about the gender inequality detected in some forms of sports participation.
Open Access
Determinants of sport performance in European football: what can we learn from the data?
(Elsevier, 2018) Zambom Ferraresi, Fabíola; Ríos Ibáñez, Vicente; Lera López, Fernando; Economía; Ekonomia
Nowadays game-related statistics in the sports industry are demanded by coaches, players, managers, journalists, supporters, fans, video games developers, betting markets and academics. However, the employment of game related statistics to analyse performance in football (soccer) has inherent problems given it is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon. This study analyses the importance of a large number of possible determinants of sport performance in the 'Big Five' European football leagues during the period 2012/13-2014/15. To this end, Bayesian model averaging techniques and relative importance metrics are employed. The results obtained point to the existence of a set of robust determinants in sport performance. This set of drivers comprises (i) assists, (ii) shots conceded, (iii) saves made by the goalkeeper, (iv) the number of precise passes with respect to the total number of passes, and (v) shots on target. The results of the study support the idea that offensive actions are more relevant than defensive ones. In addition, we find the existence of some performance indicators that have usually been ignored by previous analyses, such as saves made by the goalkeeper and assists. These findings could help the decision-making process of the coaching, scouting and managerial units of football clubs. Finally, the modelling techniques employed in this context can be generalized to gain knowledge in other fields of knowledge to extract factors affecting complex problems from large data sets. This could be particularly interesting when previous research has not yet obtained a well-defined and robust set of factors explaining these complex problems.
Open Access
Análisis del performance del fútbol inglés con inputs ex ante y ex post
(Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2017) Zambom Ferraresi, Fabíola; Lera López, Fernando; Iraizoz Apezteguia, Belén; Economía; Ekonomia
Hace más de cuatro décadas, Scully (1974) definió la representación convencional del proceso productivo de los clubes profesionales de fútbol. El output se mide en términos de éxito del equipo (victorias) y el input es el talento/calidad de los jugadores. Posteriormente se han desarrollado otros enfoques. Actualmente se considera que dicho proceso productivo está compuesto por dos etapas, que se pueden analizar de forma conjunta o separada. En la primera, la plantilla y el cuerpo técnico entrenan para mejorar sus aptitudes técnicas, tácticas, físicas y psicológicas, con el objetivo de desarrollar y mejorar jugadas durante un partido de fútbol. En la segunda, dichas jugadas, que deberían ser culminadas con goles, pueden convertirse en victorias, empates o derrotas para los equipos. Todo el proceso produce unos resultados deportivos y económicos. La desagregación del proceso productivo en dos etapas ha generado una controversia en la literatura en relación a la especificación de los inputs a considerar. Diversos trabajos (e.g., Dawson, Dobson, & Gerrard, 2000; Lee, 2006) sostienen que la manera correcta de analizar el proceso productivo es utilizando los denominados inputs ex ante, medidas de la calidad de la plantilla previas al comienzo de la temporada deportiva, como el valor de mercado de los jugadores o la valoración de los jugadores en ligas fantásticas (del Corral, 2012; Zambom-Ferraresi, Lera-López, & Iráioz, 2016). Sin embargo, otros trabajos (Espitia-Escuer & García-Cebrián, 2006; Zambom-Ferraresi, García-Cebrián, & Lera-López, 2017) utilizan inputs ex post que, en su mayor parte, son estadísticas del rendimiento deportivo de los equipos durante un partido. El objetivo de este trabajo es contribuir a esta discusión, para lo que se lleva a cabo un análisis empírico de las diferencias obtenidas en las estimaciones considerando ambos tipos de inputs.
Open Access
Does government spending help to promote healthy behavior in the population? Evidence from 27 European countries
(Oxford University Press, 2016) Lera López, Fernando; Wicker, Pamela; Downward, Paul; Economía; Ekonomia
Background: The aim of this study was to examine if government spending is associated with an individual's decision to participate in physical activity and sport which is regarded as healthy behavior given the positive health effects documented in previous research. Methods: Individual-level data (n = 25 243) containing socio-demographic information are combined with national-level data on government spending (5-year average) in 27 European countries. Given the hierarchical data structure, i.e. individuals are nested within countries; multi-level analyses are applied. Results: The multi-level models show that it is mainly education spending that has a significant positive association with participation in sport of various regularities. Health spending has some association with participation in other physical activity and sport of a lower regularity. Conclusions: While health spending can be considered a relevant policy tool for increasing sport participation rates, education spending is required more since the effects are larger and it affects both physical activity and sport. This suggests that health spending will have most effect combined with earlier influences from education spending.
Open Access
The correlates of physical activity among the population aged 50-70 years
(Federación Española de Docentes de Educación Física, 2017) Lera López, Fernando; Garrués Irisarri, Mirian; Suárez Fernández, María José; Economía; Ekonomia
Background: Physical activity is of particular interest due to its potential for improving quality of life and reducing health care costs. The contribution of this paper is to analyse the correlates of physical activity (PA) among individuals aged 50-70 years old. We differentiate between physical activity during leisure time (LTPA) and total physical activity (Total PA) and besides we offer potential policy advice to increase PA. Methods: We use a cross-sectional survey from a sample of Spanish individuals between 50 and 70 years of age. We analyse the correlates of LTPA and Total PA by estimating ordered probit models including socio-demographic characteristics, health and emotional wellbeing and social support. Results: The covariates explain in different ways LTPA and Total PA levels. In particular, the accomplishment of a minimum of LTPA is positively related to partner participation in LTPA (p<0.01), a good life satisfaction (p<0.01), being male (p<0.01) and secondary education completion (p<0.02); and it is negatively related to working status (p<0.01). On the contrary, very high levels of total PA are positively associated with partner participation(p<0.01), self-perceived health (p<0.01), women (p<0.01) and working status (p<0.05). Conclusions: It is important to increase male energy expenditure in other life domains besides leisure time. Regarding women, social support seems necessary to reach minimum levels of LTPA. Finally, the socialisation effect that we have obtained as well as the positive impact of the extrinsic social support variables might suggest the necessity to take intoaccount couple and family variables.
Open Access
How the relationship between physical activity and health changes with age
(Springer, 2018-03-28) Lera López, Fernando; Ollo López, Andrea; Garrués Irisarri, Mirian; Cabasés Hita, Juan Manuel; Sánchez Iriso, Eduardo; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
In the context of age-related declines in physical activity (PA) and the dramatic increase in ageing populations in many countries, this paper sheds further light on the link between PA and self-perceived health (SPH) by examining whether the magnitude of this relationship is age specific. With a sample of 14,456 Spanish individuals aged 18–69, we estimated three levels of intensity in PA using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Individuals who did more PA per week showed higher levels of SPH (β = 0.28; 95% CI 0.24–0.32), and age moderated this relationship, with a positive effect over age 49. People aged 50–59 and 60–69 who practiced PA had higher probabilities of better SPH compared with those aged 40–49 (β = 0.14; 95% CI 0.04–0.24) and (β = 0.32; 95% CI 0.21–0.43), respectively. This association between PA and SPH also depended on the intensity of PA, especially for walking (β = 0.14; 95% CI 0.04–0.24). In particular, in comparison with people age 40–49, a statistically significant relationship with SPH was found among people age 50–59 who walked (β = 0.22; 95% CI 0.07–0.36) and people age 60–69 who did moderate PA (β = 0.38; 95% CI 0.23–0.54). This paper provides a major rationale for the design, organisation and implementation of public policies promoting PA and healthy ageing for different age groups.
Open Access
Are football managers as efficient as coaches? Performance analysis with ex ante and ex post inputs in the Premier league
(Routledge, 2019) Zambom Ferraresi, Fabíola; Iraizoz Apezteguia, Belén; Lera López, Fernando; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
There is a controversy on sport performance literature about what type of inputs might explain more deeply the performance of sports clubs (inputs specification controversy). By one side, several papers have analysed sports teams' performance using the match-related statistics or wages as inputs, well-known as ex post inputs. By other side, some authors have criticized the use of these ex post inputs, and recommend the use of ex ante inputs, as the market value of the players. We have analysed the performance of football teams estimating technical efficiency with three different inputs specification. The methodologies employed were data envelopment analysis (DEA) and a bootstrapped DEA. Our sample is composed by English Premier League football clubs, during three seasons (2012/13-2014/15). The DEA results indicate that the correlation between the three models is positive and significant. The DEA-bootstrapped results help to restate the robustness of the estimations and endorsed the inputs choices. The correlations of the estimations with market value and match-related statistics are the most striking (90% and 94%, DEA and bootstrapped DEA), which indicate that the existent discussion related to the use of match-related statistics as input is unjustified, because it does not affect significantly the efficiency estimations.
Open Access
Actividad física y salud autopercibida en personas mayores de 50 años
(Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 2017) Lera López, Fernando; Garrués Irisarri, Mirian; Ollo López, Andrea; Sánchez Iriso, Eduardo; Cabasés Hita, Juan Manuel; Sánchez-Santos, José Manuel; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
El propósito del estudio es analizar los posibles efectos de la actividad física sobre la salud autopercibida. Para ello, se encuestó a 765 personas entre 50-70 años durante 2012 en España. Se utilizó el cuestionario internacional de actividad física (IPAQ) para estimar el equivalente metabólico de la tarea (MET) total y en cuatro ámbitos: trabajo, ocio, hogar y desplazamientos. La salud auto-percibida se obtuvo de la escala visual analógica del EQ-5D-5L. Los resultados muestran que únicamente el gasto energético de actividad física en el tiempo de ocio incide positivamente en el nivel de salud percibido, el resto de ámbitos no tienen influencia significativa. Asimismo, la autopercepción de la salud es más negativa con mayor edad, menor nivel educativo y mayor frecuencia de uso de servicios sanitarios. En conclusión, la actividad física desarrollada en el tiempo libre podría plantearse como alternativa para mejorar la calidad de vida de los mayores.
Open Access
Does regional disadvantage affect health-related sport and physical activity level? A multi-level analysis of individual behaviour
(Routledge, 2017) Wicker, Pamela; Downward, Paul; Lera López, Fernando; Economía; Ekonomia
This study examines the role of regional government quality in health-related participation in sport and physical activity among adults (18–64 years) in 28 European countries. The importance of the analysis rests in the relative autonomy that regional and local governments have over policy decisions connected with sport and physical activity. While existing studies have focussed on economic and infrastructural investment and expenditure, this research investigates the quality of regional governments across 208 regions within 28 European countries. The individual-level data stem from the 2013 Eurobarometer 80.2 (n = 18,675) and were combined with regional-level data from Eurostat. An individual's level of participation in sport and physical activity was measured by three variables reflecting whether an individual's activity level is below, meets, or exceeds the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The results of multi-level analyses reveal that regional government quality has a significant and positive association with individual participation in sport and physical activity at a level meeting or exceeding the guidelines. The impact is much larger than that of regional gross domestic product per capita, indicating that regional disadvantage in terms of political quality is more relevant than being disadvantaged in terms of economic wealth.
Open Access
Práctica deportiva y políticas públicas en el deporte en España
(FUNCAS, 2019) Lera López, Fernando; Suárez Fernández, María José; Economía; Ekonomia
El objetivo del artículo es ofrecer una panorámica de la evolución reciente y de las variables asociadas a la práctica deportiva en España, así como de las políticas públicas que se han desarrollado en materia deportiva. El artículo se estructura en tres partes. En primer lugar, se hace un análisis descriptivo de la evolución de los hábitos deportivos en España durante las últimas décadas. En segundo lugar, se efectúa una revisión de la literatura económica relativa a los factores asociados a la realización de deporte por la población española. Además, se lleva a cabo un análisis econométrico de la probabilidad de practicar deporte de forma regular, empleando las cuatro últimas Encuestas de hábitos deportivos, correspondientes a los años 2000, 2005, 2010 y 2015. De esta forma se puede determinar si ha habido cambios en la importancia relativa de las variables relacionadas con la práctica deportiva. En tercer lugar, se describe la estructura de las políticas de fomento del deporte en España y se revisa la evolución reciente del gasto público en esta materia, tanto a nivel nacional como según el tipo de administración.