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The Relative Age Effect and Under-21 Irish Association Football: A Natural Experiment and Policy Recommendations

The Economic and Social Review

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Title The Relative Age Effect and Under-21 Irish Association Football: A Natural Experiment and Policy Recommendations
 
Creator Butler, David
Butler, Robert
 
Subject soccer; association football; youth sports participation; Ireland
 
Description A relative age effect refers to the presence of a bias towards relatively older children assembled collectively within a selection year. We consider this in association football (soccer) for Republic of Ireland under twenty-one international footballers over two intervals: from November 1981 to November 1994 and from September 2007 to May 2013. As the registration date for organised soccer in Ireland changed between both periods, these intervals provide scope for a natural experiment to test for a shifting relative age effect. The study confirms the existence of a relative age effect, with a selection bias toward players born in the earlier months of the registration year for both intervals.
 
Publisher The Economic and Social Review
 
Contributor
 
Date 2015-12-16
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.esr.ie/article/view/453
 
Source The Economic and Social Review; Vol 46, No 4, Winter (2015); 511–519
0012-9984
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://www.esr.ie/article/view/453/120
 
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