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This study aims to analyse the tenure of head coaches in college women’s soccer in the USA and puts the focus on the influence of race and gender. The analysis includes individual characteristics of coaches (educational and professional background), team performance, institutional characteristics, and geographical differences (at the state level) from 1977 until 2015. The main results show that African American coaches and women have a significantly shorter tenure in these college institutions. Other factors related to the background of coaches and the characteristics of institutions also play a significant role. The findings are relevant for coaches from minority groups and athletic departments, who are interested in equity in sport. Future research may use an alternative approach to investigate the causes of tenure disparity in college women’s soccer. Locked until 12.8.2021 due to copyright restrictions. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2019.1710133

In this paper, the authors empirically analyze the influence of the gender of the coach on team performance in women’s soccer leagues. Moreover, the authors examine the role of initial experience of coaches (as professional players) as an attribute that converges with gender diversity and influence performance. The sample includes the top divisions in France, Germany, and Norway from 2004 to 2017. The results from the regression model show that the gender of the coach is not a significant determinant of team performance (points per game). In addition, the initial experience of coaches does not alter the results. Therefore, managerial decisions of clubs with regard to the employment of coaches should not rely on gender.

Today’s societies increasingly consist of members who migrated from other countries and regions, and their functioning depends heavily on integrating their diverse members. Interactions with the local population through social activities enhance integration. Despite its relevance, however, previous research has largely overlooked the role of the local population in social integration. This paper introduces an objective method for analyzing access to social activities. Switzerland includes diverse native groups, who differ in culture and language, and a high percentage of foreigners. Applications were sent by email to amateur Swiss football clubs, asking if it is possible to join a training session. The applications differed only in the contact name. Individuals with foreign names, as well as individuals with Swiss names from some other native groups, received significantly fewer responses. The findings are relevant for governing institutions and policy-makers. Researchers who study social integration may find the novel method used here of considerable interest. © The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Empirical studies show that first- and second-generation immigrants are less likely to be members of sports clubs than their non-immigrant peers. Common explanations are cultural differences and socioeconomic disadvantages. However, lower participation rates in amateur sport could be at least partly due to ethnic discrimination. Are minority ethnic groups granted the same right to belong as their non-immigrant peers? To answer this question, this paper uses publicly available data from a field experiment in which mock applications were sent out to over 1,600 football clubs in Germany. Having a foreign-sounding name significantly reduces the likelihood of being invited to participate. The paper concludes that amateur football clubs are not as permeable as they are often perceived to be. It claims that traditional explanations for lower participation rates of immigrants need to be revisited. Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschunghttps://doi.org/10.13039/501100001711 Stiftung für wissenschaftliche Forschung an der Universität Zürich

In this paper, we examine if a slight behavioural modification has an influence on discrimination. Specifically, we use a field experiment based on emails to observe if persistence increases the chances of joining a social group. We find that native- or foreign-sounding names are equally successful when being persistent. However, non-persistent individuals with foreign-sounding names suffer from discrimination. The results show that persistent individuals can be especially interesting in the context of field experiments. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

Heat exposure affects human performance in many ways. Both physiological (i.e., glycogen sparing, oxygen uptake, thermoregulation) and biomechanical mechanisms (i.e., contact time, knee flexion, muscle activity) are affected, hence reducing performance. However, the exposure affects persons differently. Not all athletes necessarily experience an identical thermal condition similarly, and this point has been overlooked to date. We analyzed endurance performances of the top 1000 runners for every year during the last 12 New York City Marathons. Thermal conditions were estimated with wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and universal thermal climate index (UTCI). Under identical thermal exposure, the fastest runners experienced a larger decline in performance than the slower ones. The empirical evidence offered here not only shows that thermal conditions affect runners differently, but also that some groups might consistently suffer more than others. Further research may inspect other factors that could be affected by thermal conditions, as pacing and race strategy Copyright © 2020 Gasparetto and Nesseler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

This paper examines the issue of employee discrimination after a political crisis: the annexation of Crimea. The annexation, which resulted in a political crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations, is a setting which allows us to test if a bilateral political issue caused employee discrimination. We use a quasi-experimental approach to examine how the political crisis influenced participation in major sports leagues in Russia and Ukraine. The results show that the employment conditions significantly worsened since the Crimea crisis started. Copyright: © 2020 Naidenova et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.