Exploring the determinants of salary valuations in women's professional soccer

This paper examines the determinants of salary valuations in women's professional soccer, a topic that has been largely overlooked in academic research. Using a unique dataset derived from the FIFA video game series, the study analyzes how player quality, age, skills, and international reputation are associated with salary valuations using Ordinary Least Squares regression. The findings indicate that observable measures of talent, age, technical skills, and reputation are systematically related to salary valuations, broadly aligning with patterns documented in men's professional soccer. This similarity suggests increasing convergence in how player attributes are valued across genders as women's soccer continues to professionalize. The study contributes novel evidence on salary-setting patterns in women's soccer and offers insights relevant to the sport's ongoing development, particularly with respect to visibility, commercialization, and efforts to reduce the gender pay gap.