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Why in rugby union does “Toulouse” mean “to win”? Estimation of a production function of sports results (2011–2016)
Author(s) -
Dubois Eric
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/mde.2864
Subject(s) - ranking (information retrieval) , production (economics) , function (biology) , estimation , ideal (ethics) , relevance (law) , production function , econometrics , statistics , operations research , marketing , advertising , mathematics , computer science , economics , political science , business , microeconomics , management , artificial intelligence , law , evolutionary biology , biology
The objective of this article is to understand more fully the determinants of sports performance. To do this, we estimate a production function of sports results that explains the results of the Toulouse rugby union team's matches expressed as the gap in points between it and its opponents. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a production function has been estimated in rugby union. In addition, it is one of the few production functions specified at the match level. The study confirms the relevance of some variables already identified in the literature, such as home advantage, ranking, the role of the referee, and in‐match statistics. It also shows the influence of new variables, such as weather conditions and the relative strength of fielded teams measured by comparing the teams selected on match day to the ideal teams defined at the beginning of the season.