We were delighted to learn last week of the acceptance of our paper "The Evolution of the Football Jersey - An Institutional Perspective" in the Journal of Institutional Economics.
This paper explores the interaction of informal constraints on human behaviour by examining the evolution of English football jerseys. The jersey provides an excellent setting to demonstrate how informal constraints emerge from formal rules and shape human behaviour. Customs, approved norms and habits are all observed in this setting.
The commercialisation of football in recent decades has resulted in these informal constraints, in many cases dating back over a century, co-existing with branding, goodwill and identity effects. Combined these motivate clubs to maintain the status quo. As a result, club colours have remained remarkably resilient within a frequently changing landscape.
The paper is currently going through the production process but should be available online in the coming weeks, and will appear later in the year in the journal.