The determination of transfer fees in English nonleague football

In recent years a number of studies have analysed the player transfer marke t in English professional football. This paper examines whether similar fac tors operate to determine transfer fees in the semiprofessional, or nonleag ue, game. An empirical model of the nonleague player transfer market is dev eloped in which observed transfer fees are determined by player characteris tics, time effects, selling-club characteristics and buying-club characteri stics. Using data on 114 transfer fees covering the period 1988 to 1997, we find evidence that the data generating process for transfer fees is broadl y similar in both professional and nonleague football.