Analysing the technical efficiency of the Spanish Football League First Division with a random frontier model

Abstract

This article analyses technical efficiency of football clubs in the Spanish Football League Division 1 (Primera Liga) from the seasons 1995–1996 to 2004–2005 with an unbalanced panel data. The random frontier model is used, allowing the identification of random variables in the cost frontier. It is concluded that the price of capital investment, the number of points won and attendance are heterogeneous variables. Therefore, no common public policy aiming to improve efficiency can embrace all of the clubs, so that policies by clusters are required.

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our gratitude to Angel Barajas, Miguel Cardenal, Joaquin Serrano, Carlos del Campo and Emilio Garcia-Silvero. Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (SEJ2004-04649, Spain).

Notes

¹ F.C. Barcelona won the European Champions League, while Sevilla C.F. won the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) Cup at the end of the 2005/06 season. These are the two European-level club competitions.