Three Essays on the Labour Market Implications of Youth Training Programs and Institutional Changes in Professional Sports

Abstract

The firs chapter of the thesis examines the impact of youth training programs on career and spell duration of professional athletes. A unique data set of post-war English trained soccer players is used to study the impact of the youth training program they attended on their career and spell duration. The results indicate that the duration patterns of players are dependent on the youth academy they attended. The spell analysis outlines the nature of the competitive environment between smaller and larger clubs. Finally, the results of career and spell duration analyses addressed unobserved heterogeneity, allowed for nonlinearity of covariates using the cubic spline methodology, and were tested for endogeneity bias using a split sample test.The second chapter analyzes certain labour market implications of institutional changes in professional sports. The study examines the impact of the Bosman ruling on the competitive nature of new entrants to the English Premier League. Relevant labour economics literature would predict that post-Bosman entrants will be more productive and consequently have a higher probability of securing a first-tea spot in top European leagues. To test these predictions, proprietary data was collected on all players that entered the English Premier League in four-year windows around the Bosman ruling. Regression Discontinuity Design displayed evident discontinuity in certain iii proxies for player productivity around the ruling. In addition, strong and robust empirical support for the motivating predictions is established through the application of survival analysis.The third chapter utilizes the data sets from the firs two chapters and analyzes internal promotion versus external hiring in the English Premier League. Robust results are established in support of more reputable youth programs providing more first-tea opportunities through internal sources, consistently even in the aftermath of a major institutional change. Foreign sourced players become more prevalent in the league after the Bosman ruling, and their probability of selection is positively correlated with club stature. A separate survival analysis validates prior results in terms of youth training reputation of certain clubs, and establishes a presence of heterogeneity at youth club level that signals differences in player career prospects generated by their youth training.iv AcknowledgmentsThere are many people that deserve recognition and my sincere gratitude in making this thesis possible, so I must apologize to the ones that are not mentioned here. I have to start with my supervisor, Dr. Marcel Voia, without whom this project would be only a distant dream. His timely motivation and guidance throughout the process are greatly appreciated, and I owe a large debt to him in giving me invaluable educational and personal advice at times when I stumbled and questioned myself on this path.