Competing by investments or efficiency? Exploring financial and sporting efficiency of club ownership structures in European football

Professional European football clubs have been hypothesized to maximize sporting or financial objectives. The authors analyze the impact of various ownership structures on the realized management efficiency in maximizing profitability and national sporting success. Therefore, they apply the time-varying stochastic frontier model by Battese & Coelli (1995) to an unbalanced panel from England and France between 2006 and 2012. French professional football is characterized by a shift towards private investors. Results show that clubs majority-owned by private investors are less efficient than other clubs in French Ligue 1. In English professional football, the majority of takeovers is pursued by foreign investors. Although previous researchers have shown that foreign investors increase financial resources and team investments, the authors demonstrate that foreign investors reduce both financial and sporting efficiency. The analysis of survival and financial team efficiencies of club ownership structures indicates that clubs tend to compete by investments rather than efficiency.     

西欧启蒙思想家的中国文化观探略

在以“理性主义时代”而著称的17、18世纪,西欧启蒙思想家抨击中世纪的神学教条,倡导建立一个合乎理性的社会和国家。以儒家学说为核心的中国传统文化,强调顺应自然“天道,”重视伦理道德,显然与西欧启蒙思想家的理想具有诸多吻合。由此,东方儒家文化成为启蒙运动者汲取精神养料的一个宝贵源泉,亚欧大陆东西两端的文化交流为近代欧洲文明的发展做出了贡献。     

近年来西欧社会民主党执政困境探源

20世纪90年代中后期,社会民主党同时在13个欧盟国家实现执政或联合执政,然而仅仅经过短短几年就锐减到6个。本文认为,政党政治的“钟摆效应”、社会民主党自身的政策困境和策略失误以及中右政党政策的适时调整,造成了这种困境。实践表明,无论什么性质的政党,要想赢得和保持执政地位,最根本的是要使其价值理念和政策导向因时而变,以赢得社会各群体的多数认同。