Title: The determinants of women's international soccer performances

Authors: Benno Torgler

Addresses: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Leitner, Programme in International and Comparative Political Economy, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, P.O. Box 208206, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA), Gellertstrasse 24, CH-4052 Basel, Switzerland

Abstract: The expansion of economics to |non-market topics|, such as soccer, has received increased attention in recent years. However, most of the studies focus on men|s performances, whereas this paper reports empirical evidence of women|s international team performances. In line with the previous studies, which analysed the performance of men, the results reveal that economic, demographic, and climatic factors have a strong impact on teams| performances. The novelty of the paper is to investigate the impact of soccer tradition on women|s team performances. It analyses whether there is a correlation between women|s and men|s team performances. In general, countries with a stronger football tradition not only have strong men|s teams, but also women|s teams. The findings also indicate that there is a certain competitive balance between the different football regions.

Keywords: international football; international soccer; gender; FIFA; culture; women|s football; female footballers; team performances; soccer tradition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2008.017208

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2008 Vol.3 No.4, pp.305 - 318

Published online: 19 Feb 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article