Open Access
Sport promotion through sport mega-events. An analysis for types of olympic sports in London 2012
(MDPI, 2020) Kokolakakis, Themis; Lera López, Fernando; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
A substantial amount of attention has been devoted towards the potential sport legacy of the Olympic Games. In spite of the increasing academic interest in this topic, there is a knowledge gap as far as sport legacy is concerned by types of different sports. The authors bridge this gap by analysing the evolution of 43 different Olympic/Paralympic sport modalities in the two-year period after the London 2012 Olympics. By using data from the Active People Survey with a sample of 165,000 people annually, and considering some demographic variables and the effect of the economic environment, the paper aims to test the existence of a sport legacy. We have applied time series analysis and ARIMA models for controlling for economic influence and seasonal adjustment and for making comparisons among participation rates. The results show, for the total of the sports analysed, that there were 336,000 individuals who increased their frequency of participation, while there was no significant increase in the number of new participants in these sports. When we develop the analysis for types of sports, London 2012 is positively associated not only with the frequency of participation in some types of sport but also with an increase in the number of new sport participants. Gender and age differences are also detected. The results show the differences of sport legacy by type of sports. Moreover, this research has elucidated an important unrecognised aspect of the effect of the Olympic Games and perhaps major events: that they can become a major policy tool for reversing sporting inequalities.
Open Access
Comparing competitive balance for men's and women's leagues in European handball
(Routledge, 2024-08-09) Ayúcar Sánchez, Amaia; Lera López, Fernando; Iraizoz Apezteguia, Belén; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Research question: this paper contributes to research concerned with gender comparison in sport, considering handball, traditionally overlooked in studies of competitive balance. Research methods: we estimate measures of concentration and dominance to analyse the competitive balance in eight European handball leagues (both female and male) in four European countries (Denmark, France, Germany and Spain) during 15 seasons. Results and Findings: the results show statistically significant differences between the female and the male handball leagues. With the exception of France, the level of concentration is higher in the female than in the male leagues. In terms of dominance, there is less difference between the genders. In terms of evolution, the indicators reflect a deterioration of the competitive balance mainly in the female leagues. Implications: the analyses suggest that different measures should be put in place to increase the competitive balance in female leagues, through the transfer of resources from the male to the female leagues. To reduce the high level of dominance, a redistribution of resources among the teams should be considered to reduce the 'drag effect'. Research contribution: this is the first time that the most important European handball leagues have been examined to test the gender gap in competitive balance, with statistically significant differences being found.

Lera López, Fernando

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