Open Access
Valuing the contribution of sport volunteering to subjective wellbeing: evidence from eight European countries
(Frontiers Media, 2024) Kokolakakis, Themis; Schoemaker, Jelle; Lera López, Fernando; Boer, Willem de; Čingienė, Vilma; Papić, Alma; Ahlert, Gerd; Economía; Ekonomia
Introduction: Volunteering is a prominent and integral aspect of the activities undertaken by sports clubs in Europe. However, even with its growing importance, quantifying the monetary worth of this nonmarket activity, in terms of wellbeing, can present certain difficulties. Traditional approaches to valuing volunteering (i.e., replacement and opportunity cost approaches) do not fully capture the value of volunteering to individuals, as they do not consider the intangible benefits that individuals may derive from their participation. Methods: This research provides added value to the monetisation of volunteering in sport by applying the wellbeing valuation approach (WVA) for the first time to a cross-sectional data in eight European countries. A double instrumental variable approach was developed to correct for unobservable variables that may influence the pairs: income and subjective wellbeing (SWB), and volunteering and SWB. This allows to estimate the causal impact of volunteering and income on SWB more accurately and assign a reasonable monetary value to this non-market activity. Results: The results, based on a sample size of 1,091, show an income compensation for a volunteer, devoting on average 8.7 hours during a four-week period of €16 to €50 per hour, equivalent to between € 1,700 and € 5,200 per year, depending on the nationality of the volunteer. Discussion: With these estimations insights into the value of volunteering in sports are provided, contributing to a better understanding of how this activity can be valued and supported. By recognising and accurately valuing the contributions of volunteers, sport organizations and policymakers can develop more effective strategies for promoting and supporting volunteering in sports.
Open Access
Sport legacy impact on ethnic minority groups: the case of London 2012: the sport mega-events of the 2020s: governance, impacts and controversies. Special issue in sport in society
(Routledge, 2021) Kokolakakis, Themis; Lera López, Fernando; Economía; Ekonomia
The sport legacy among ethnic minorities has been neglected despite the positive outcomes of active lifestyle and social inclusion. The current research, applying time series analysis, evaluates evidence of sport legacy among four English ethnic minorities regarding the hosting of Olympic Games (London 2012). A short-term association was found between hosting the Games and sport participation rates among ethnic groups, leading more to increasing frequency of engagement for existing participants than to attracting new participants. The results indicate differences among the ethnic groups and gender, showing that females from Asian ethnicities having the highest engagement. Practical implications for the governance of events in the future relate to improving the festival effect of the Games, to encourage social inclusion for ethnic minorities. Our results might encourage policy makers to maintain a sustained effort in the post-event period to capitalise on sport legacy.
Open Access
Hosting a football club as a source of social trust and civic pride
(Taylor & Francis, 2025-04-30) García, Jaume; Lera López, Fernando; Sánchez-Santos, José Manuel; Economía; Ekonomia; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
This research conducted an analysis to ascertain the role that a professional sports club plays in the development of social capital and civic pride within its host community. We analysed the determinants of social trust and civic pride by means of an ordered Probit model and a standard binary Probit model based on the information provided in a survey. Our results suggest the existence of a link between club identification and civic pride, but there is no relationship with social trust (the proxy of social capital). The proposed models offer a clearer understanding of the intangible and indirect impacts on a community associated with hosting a professional football club. They emphasize certain social and community impacts that exhibit characteristics of non-pecuniary public goods.
Open Access
Building social capital through sport engagement: evidence for adults aged 50 years and older
(Cambridge, 2022) Sánchez-Santos, José Manuel; Rungo, Paolo; Lera López, Fernando; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Involvement in sports is considered a powerful way to generate social capital. However, the role of sport engagement in the development of social relationships of older adults has not received much attention. Remarkably, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the quality and diversity of social relations built through active sport participation and spectatorship. This paper attempts to assess the relationship between sport engagement and various measures of network social capital, including the extension and quality of social networks and the heterogeneity of personal relationships. Also, it proposes new and more informative measurements of an individual's quantity and quality of social ties. By analysing data from a survey in Spain (N = 600) and applying logistic regressions, the results show that sport participation and attendance at sporting events are closely related to different dimensions of network social capital. Concerning people who are not actively engaged in sports, more extensive social networks characterise those who frequently attend sporting events. In contrast, active sport participation is associated with the extensity and quality measures of social connectedness, the level of satisfaction with friends and the opportunity to enjoy close relationships. Therefore, this paper provides new evidence on how sport engagement may result in tighter and extensive networks for older adults and serve as support for emphasising sports, physical activity and leisure as strategies for maintaining and boosting older people's social and psychological health.
Open Access
Light, moderate and vigorous physical activities: new insights into a virtuous circle with happiness
(Taylor & Francis, 2022) Castellanos García, Pablo; Lera López, Fernando; Sánchez-Santos, José Manuel; Economía; Ekonomia; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
The study of the physical activity engagement (PA) has given rise to a relevant research agenda in a wide range of fields, such as its close relationship with subjective well-being, self-perceived health and social capital. Previous evidence has identified interrelationships among these variables, but without considering different levels of physical activity. We have thus considered three levels of activity: light (walking), moderate and vigorous. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is undertaken on data from Spain’s National Health Survey in 2011–2012 to analyse these interrelationships. The SEM shows a simultaneous and bidirectional relationship between different levels of PA (moderate and vigorous activities) and happiness, with a more robust association stemming from happiness to PA than vice versa. This relationship is mediated through health. From a policy perspective, this implies a virtuous circle: involvement in different levels of PA increases happiness and self-perceived health, while happiness involves higher PA and subsequent positive increases in health and happiness. Nevertheless, this virtuous circle does not always run successfully when social capital is considered to mediate the relationship between PA and happiness, which might explain why it has proven to be very difficult for health policymakers to fight against inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle within a great part of the population.
Open Access
Computer use and pay for performance
(Wiley, 2021) Bayo Moriones, José Alberto; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Lera López, Fernando; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gestión de Empresas; Economía
Workplace digitalisation is a pervasive phenomenon associated to an increase in wage differentials between occupations. This paper analyses the relationship between computer use and pay for performance, whose incidence has also followed a positive growth pattern. More concretely, we examined three pay-for-performance schemes: productivity/piece rate, team and firm pay for performance. We also investigated the mediating role of job design in this relationship. The complementarity framework perspective and the economic theory of incentives were the theoretical approaches applied in the development of hypotheses. Data from four waves of the European Working Conditions Survey were used in the empirical analyses. A positive association was found between computer use and the three pay for performance schemes considered, particularly team and firm pay for performance. The results also indicated that this relationship was partially explained by changes in job design due to computerisation, such as higher job complexity, on-the-job training and teamwork.
Open Access
Do educational inequalities affect Internet use? An analysis for developed and developing countries
(Elsevier, 2021) Billón Currás, Margarita; Crespo, Jorge; Lera López, Fernando; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
This study investigates whether the existence of educational inequalities at the country level affects Internet use. Additionally, we explore the extent to which these impacts depend on countries' economic development levels. We use a logit model and data set of 69 high- and middle-income countries for the period 2005-2015. We find a negative relationship between Internet use and education inequality for the whole sample. The results confirm that, in addition to the level of education and other socioeconomic variables, the distribution of formal education among citizens within a country is also important to explain Internet use. We also obtain that this distribution affects Internet use to a higher extent in middle-income economies in comparison with high-income ones. Unlike the positive influence of educational levels obtained in the academic literature, the existence of within-country educational disparities negatively influences Internet use. This study demonstrates the influence of countries' educational structure in relative terms in explaining Internet use.
Open Access
Is passive sport engagement positively associated with happiness?
(Wiley, 2020-10-06) Lera López, Fernando; Ollo López, Andrea; Sánchez-Santos, José Manuel; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Background: Previous empirical evidence has shown the positive relationship between happiness or subjective well-being (SWB) and sport participation. Nevertheless, passive sport participation has traditionally been ignored as a correlate with happiness. Methods: Based on a sample of 1,632 Spanish people, one ordered probit model and three extended ordered probit models with an ordinal endogenous covariate technique and robust standard errors were applied. Results: We find that different forms of passive sport participation, such as frequency of attending sporting events and a set of other forms of passive sports participation such aswatching sports on TV, listening to sports programmes, reading sports news, and talking to others about sports, are positively associated with happiness. Conclusions: The results indicate that passive sport participation generally appears to have a closer relationship with individual happiness than active sport participation and emphasise the role played by some forms of sport participation as a source of relational goods. This current research extends the field's understanding of sport participation and happiness, including passive participation, and the relevance of social interactions to account for this association. Finally, the relational aspect of different forms of sport participation offers new implications for the analysis of sport engagement and happiness.
Open Access
Disruption of traditional land use regimes causes an economic loss of provisioning services in high-mountain grasslands
(Elsevier, 2020) Durán Lázaro, María; Canals Tresserras, Rosa María; Sáez Istilart, José Luis; Ferrer Lorés, V.; Lera López, Fernando; Ekonomia; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Mountain ecosystems face many challenges related to global change. Most high-altitude grasslands in the Pyrenees, despite representing valuable assets recognised in the European conservation heritage, are at risk due to the decline of traditional extensive ranging. This research intends to quantify economically the loss of the provisioning service of high-quality food for livestock of an upland area on the western side of the range. The area is experiencing degradation due to the expansion of the native tall-grass Brachypodium rupestre, favoured by disruption of traditional grazing and anthropogenic fire regimes. We implement the substitution economic approach and use floristic and husbandry data to determine that the loss of food rations for livestock results in an unitary cost of 107 (sic).ha(-1).year(-1), amounting to 21146 (sic) for the whole degraded area, according to the most conservative estimate. The study also finds evidence that the decline in grassland value is closely associated with the digestibility to herbivores of B. rupestre during the growing season. This approach may be an effective tool to raise awareness of the problem among local and regional stakeholders and encourage further environmental actions to prevent the degradation.
Open Access
Public policies and sport participation in Spain and Portugal
(Routledge, 2023) Gómez Gómez-Plana, Antonio; Lera López, Fernando; Maia, António de Araújo Barros; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
This chapter examines the transformation and evolution of sports participation that has occurred in Spain and Portugal during the last years and the relevance of the public policies in explaining this evolution. The main areas covered in this chapter include an analysis of the evolution of sports participation in both countries, considering potential similarities. It also discusses the public policies developed in sport by policymakers in both countries and the main laws that regulate this activity. It also examines the distribution of public expenditure in sports within the main levels of public administration in Spain and Portugal. The chapter finishes with a comparison of sports participation and sport public policies developed in both countries.