Professor Robert Simmons

Professor

Research Interests

Labour economics: economics of working time; employment effects of working time reductions in Germany; union bargaining over working time; efficiency wage models; adverse selection models; personnel economics.

Sports economics: earnings of sports stars; pay and performance of players and teams in US and European sports; spatial and match-by-match models of attendance demand in sports; economics of sports broadcasting;models of outcome uncertainty and competitive balance in sports leagues; betting markets in sports.

Profile

Rob Simmons is a Lecturer in Economics. He was educated at University of Warwick and University of Manchester and holds a doctorate from University of Leeds. Dr Simmons specialises in labour economics and sports economics. He has published on theoretical and empirical aspects of labour economics, covering areas such as union bargaining over working time, demand-side analysis of working time and efficiency wage models including adverse selection and shirking behaviour. He has been engaged as a consultant to the International Labour Organisation. Dr Simmons is a member of the European Association of Labour Economists and he has presented several papers at their annual conference. Currently, Dr Simmons is pursuing interests in personnel economics, including the impact of changing human resource management practices on the labour market. Dr Simmons also has an international reputation as a sports economist. He has researched into several topics in sports economics, many of which have a labour market focus. He has published pioneering papers on attendance demand in football using a travel cost methodology, on football transfer markets using a sample selection model and on salary determination in Italian football using a rarely published data set. He is currently working on several topics in sports economics, including a new theoretical model of sports league behaviour, economic analysis of sports broadcasting, the labour market for players in the US National Football League and further analysis of earnings in Italian football. Dr Simmons is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Sports Economics. He was also recently a co-convenor of the ESRC financed Sports, Arts and Leisure Economics Study Group. Outside work, Rob is married with two children and his leisure interests include cinema, travel, keeping fit and football refereeing.

Current Teaching

Undergraduate: Econ 211 Introduction to Mathematical Economics

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) (Journal)
Editorial activity

European Conference of Sports Economics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Western Economic Association International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Economics and Psychology of Football
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Western Economic Assocation International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Faculty Seminar
Invited talk

Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

University of Central Lancashire
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Scottish Economic Society
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Football and Finance Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Seminar in Sports Economics
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

University of Paris 1 (External organisation)
Membership of committee

TEMPO-CEPR Conference on International Migration
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Work and Pensions Group
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Western Economic Association International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Applied Econometrics Association
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Western Economic Association International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

North American Association of Sports Economists (External organisation)
Member of an organisation

Western Economic Association International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Gijon Congress on Sports Economics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

German Sports University Cologne
Visiting an external academic institution

Scottish Economic Society
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Inter-University Milan seminar in labour economics
Invited talk

Workshop on corruption in Italian football
Invited talk

Departmental seminar
Invited talk

Bocconi University
Visiting an external academic institution

Departmental seminar
Invited talk

University of Duisburg
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Labour Economics (Journal)
Editorial activity

Journal of Productivity Analysis (Journal)
Editorial activity

Journal of Sports Economics (Journal)
Editorial activity

Surrey University
Visiting an external academic institution

Armand Caraben Workshop on Sports Economics
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

European Conference of Sports Economics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Western Economic Association International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Economics and Psychology of Football
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

University of Oviedo (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Economic Journal (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Labour Economics (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Coventry University
Visiting an external academic institution

Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Austrian Statistical Society
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Western Economic Association International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

European Association of Population Economics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Scottish Economic Society
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

International Journal of Sport Finance (Journal)
Editorial activity

International Journal of Industrial Organization (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Journal of Economic Psychology (Journal)
Editorial activity

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Department of Work and Pensions Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Western Economic Association International
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

University of Paderborn
Visiting an external academic institution

International Association of Sports Economists
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Birkbeck College
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Scottish Economic Society
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Euromed Management Marseille
Visiting an external academic institution

National Audit Office (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Economica (Journal)
Publication peer-review

British Journal of Industrial Relations (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Economic Inquiry (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Scottish Journal of Political Economy (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Southern Economic Journal (Journal)
Publication peer-review

Journal of Gambling Business and Economics (Journal)
Editorial activity

International Journal of Sport Finance (Journal)
Editorial activity

University of Wales
Visiting an external academic institution

Western Economic Association International Annual C
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Journal of Sports Economics (Journal)
Editorial activity

Economics Research Group
Industrial Organisation and Economic Theory
Labour, Education and Health Economics