Daily Archives: July 17, 2006

International Football Labor Market: Juventus Fire Sale

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Lynne Kiesling

The Italilan football league scandal has brought the relegation of the four culprit teams, including Juventus, the best team in the Italian Serie A. If I understand the stipulations of the contracts, this relegation means that players are not obligated to remain with the relegated teams. It is better for their careers for them to play in the top leagues, so relegation makes these teams much less attractive.

Thus there’s the perception that other European teams will swoop in and buy the services of the top players on these teams. 13 of Italy’s national team players and 5 other World Cup players are on the relegated teams; these 18 players are expected to attract attention from many other teams in England, Spain, and other European countries.

But the new Juventus president is trying to signal to the labor market that they do not expect to have to transfer the rights to these players at fire-sale prices:

Juventus’ new president Giovanni Cobolli Gilli has vowed to try to keep as many of their star names as possible at the club, and insists none will leave at cut-down prices.

“I hope that some of our important players will stay,” he said.

“Obviously lots of them will find it hard to stay with us in Serie B with 30 points deducted, but the clubs that are interested will have to pay full rate.

“Should Real Madrid want our players, they will have to pay. That also applies to other teams who may be interested in our players, because we have the duty to defend the club’s heritage.”

Nice sentiment. But I think what will determine the ultimate trading price is the demand-side bidding activity, not any sentimentality about the club’s heritage.

The Wisdon of Crowds Tech Support

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Lynne Kiesling

OK, this is the kind of creative thinking that makes life beautiful. This CNET News article discusses a new service, Qunu, that aims to unleash distributed tech geek knowledge on tech support problems.

In my experience, the best technical support on any product will come from somebody who actually uses and likes the product, not a paid support rep following a script. That’s why people use open message boards. Message boards have always amazed me, though because so many people are willing to chip in and help people they don’t know. But they work, and whatever the topic you need help with, there’s almost certainly a group of people online willing to lend their earnest advice.

If you can’t wait for a response in a message board, you can try a new service, Qunu, which is trying to replicate the message board community spirit, but in real time. Qunu connects you via instant message to an expert on the topic you need help with.

Qunu experts register themselves and tell the system what they know about. People who need help select a topic, and the system then connects the two people via IM.

How absolutely, utterly, totally cool is that? Qunu has an embedded reputation mechanism (which the article doesn’t describe), and is in limited use right now because it does not use the more widely-available IM platforms. But the developers are working on that.

It’s only been up for 39 days, and already 1,500 experts are registered. This will be fun to watch.

Thanks to Slashdot for the link.

Are Economists Tactless?

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Lynne Kiesling

Let me just state for the record that Alex’s telling his wife that he’ll appreciate the peace and quiet of an empty house is not a function of gender (or, at least not solely). I have been know to make similarly tactless (to use Tim Worstall’s word) remarks to the KP Spouse, who is an incredibly patient soul. And perhaps economists are a bit lacking in tact …