Academia

By Lionel Page 8 April 2010 As an academic with an interest in economic analysis, the downfall of the English teams in the Champions League this season did not surprise me, even while it disappointed me as a Manchester United fan. Earlier this season, I was actually expecting that the English teams would “under-perform” in the competition, when set […]

2 February New research led by Harvard and reported in the current edition of Nature journal has shown that people who run in bare feet “avoid hurtful and potentially damaging impacts, equivalent to two to three times body weight, that shod heel-strikers repeatedly experience.” “Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts, but […]

27 January 2010 With the World Cup in South Africa just around the corner, the third international conference on the ‘Economics and Psychology of Football’ will be staged at Heythrop College, University of London, on 29-30 May. As the Heythrop website says: “The aim of the conference is to gather scholars, the media and other […]

26 January 2010 Did Diego Maradona get away with the ‘Hand of God’ goal that helped Argentina to eliminate England from the 1986 World Cup because he was small, or to use a more technical term, because of “height perception bias”? The Argentina manager’s specific case is not dealt with in a fresh and wide-ranging […]

December 2009 The leading striker at your club – or for your country – has just banged in a hat-trick. He must be in “form”, mustn’t he? And thus more likely than average to score in his next game as well? No, actually. According to a book published last year, the concept of “form” in […]