Identification of Segments of Soccer Clubs in the Spanish League First Division with a Latent Class Model Comments

Abstract

In this brief commentary, I critically evaluate the empirical application of the stochastic frontier latent class model to panel data of the Spanish Football League presented in an article by Barros, Corral, and Garcia-del-Barrio, published in a previous issue of this journal. Errors from the selection of input price variable to the interpretation of the cost function estimates are discussed, and empirical evidence that their estimates are not consistent to basic microeconomic theories is presented.