Production and efficiency in team sports: an investigation of rugby league football

Abstract

In this paper we attempt to formulate a production function for rugby league football using ‘true’ input data in the form of performance influencing variables, as well as performance-related inputs. We identify those factors that contribute to team success and empirically estimate their effect using data for professional rugby league clubs competing in England. On the basis of computed residuals we also identify those teams shown to be relatively efficient and inefficient given their available resources.