IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v79y2022ics0927537122001786.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Birthplace diversity and team performance

Author

Listed:
  • Brox, Enzo
  • Krieger, Tommy

Abstract

Using hand-collected and web-scraped data on 7208 matches and 3266 players from the highest division of German male football, this paper examines how birthplace diversity affects team performance. The results of two instrumental variable analyses suggest that birthplace diversity has a hump-shaped effect on team performance. To explain our result, we argue that nationally diverse teams have a wider range of skills and face greater communication barriers.

Suggested Citation

  • Brox, Enzo & Krieger, Tommy, 2022. "Birthplace diversity and team performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:79:y:2022:i:c:s0927537122001786
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102288
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537122001786
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102288?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manthos D. Delis & Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Iftekhar Hasan & Fotios Pasiouras, 2017. "The Effect of Board Directors from Countries with Different Genetic Diversity Levels on Corporate Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(1), pages 231-249, January.
    2. Frédéric Docquier & Riccardo Turati & Jérôme Valette & Chrysovalantis Vasilakis, 2020. "Birthplace diversity and economic growth: evidence from the US states in the Post-World War II period [Cultural diversity and economic growth: evidence from the US during the age of mass migration]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 321-354.
    3. Benjamin F. Jones, 2009. "The Burden of Knowledge and the "Death of the Renaissance Man": Is Innovation Getting Harder?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(1), pages 283-317.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    5. Tom Fangyun Tan & Serguei Netessine, 2014. "When Does the Devil Make Work? An Empirical Study of the Impact of Workload on Worker Productivity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(6), pages 1574-1593, June.
    6. Papps, Kerry L. & Bryson, Alex & Gomez, Rafael, 2011. "Heterogeneous worker ability and team-based production: Evidence from major league baseball, 1920-2009," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 310-319, June.
    7. Alberto Alesina & Johann Harnoss & Hillel Rapoport, 2016. "Birthplace diversity and economic prosperity," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 101-138, June.
    8. Elizabeth Lyons, 2017. "Team Production in International Labor Markets: Experimental Evidence from the Field," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 70-104, July.
    9. Kevin Lang, 1986. "A Language Theory of Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(2), pages 363-382.
    10. Bryson, Alex & Chevalier, Arnaud, 2015. "Is there a taste for racial discrimination amongst employers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 51-63.
    11. Quamrul Ashraf & Oded Galor, 2013. "The 'Out of Africa' Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 1-46, February.
    12. Quamrul Ashraf & Oded Galor, 2008. "Human Genetic Diversity and Comparative Economic Development," 2008 Meeting Papers 617, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    13. Jason J Sandvik & Richard E Saouma & Nathan T Seegert & Christopher T Stanton, 2020. "Workplace Knowledge Flows," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(3), pages 1635-1680.
    14. Joseph Price & Justin Wolfers, 2010. "Racial Discrimination Among NBA Referees," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1859-1887.
    15. Dohmen, Thomas J., 2008. "Do professionals choke under pressure?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(3-4), pages 636-653, March.
    16. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2011. "Robust Inference With Multiway Clustering," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 238-249, April.
    17. Frédéric Docquier & Riccardo Turati & Jérôme Valette & Chrysovalantis Vasilakis, 2016. "Multiculturalism and Growth: Skill-Specific Evidence from the Post-World War II Period," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2016028, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    18. Sander Hoogendoorn & Hessel Oosterbeek & Mirjam van Praag, 2013. "The Impact of Gender Diversity on the Performance of Business Teams: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1514-1528, July.
    19. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    20. Staats, Bradley R. & Milkman, Katherine L. & Fox, Craig R., 2012. "The team scaling fallacy: Underestimating the declining efficiency of larger teams," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 132-142.
    21. Peter Arcidiacono & Josh Kinsler & Joseph Price, 2017. "Productivity Spillovers in Team Production: Evidence from Professional Basketball," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 191-225.
    22. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2021. "Cities and cultures," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 6, pages 153-186, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    23. Uwe Blien & Linda Borrs & Jens Südekum & Katja Wolf, 2014. "Local Labour Markets and Cultural Diversity," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(02), pages 27-34, July.
    24. Jo Thori Lind & Halvor Mehlum, 2010. "With or Without U? The Appropriate Test for a U‐Shaped Relationship," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(1), pages 109-118, February.
    25. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    26. Lichter, Andreas & Pestel, Nico & Sommer, Eric, 2017. "Productivity effects of air pollution: Evidence from professional soccer," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 54-66.
    27. Oriana Bandiera & Iwan Barankay & Imran Rasul, 2010. "Social Incentives in the Workplace," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(2), pages 417-458.
    28. Mariesa A. Herrmann & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2012. "Worker Absence and Productivity: Evidence from Teaching," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(4), pages 749-782.
    29. Erik Hornung, 2014. "Immigration and the Diffusion of Technology: The Huguenot Diaspora in Prussia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 84-122, January.
    30. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    31. Richard B. Freeman & Wei Huang, 2015. "Collaborating with People Like Me: Ethnic Coauthorship within the United States," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(S1), pages 289-318.
    32. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Camille Landais & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "Taxation and International Migration of Superstars: Evidence from the European Football Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1892-1924, August.
    33. Lazear, Edward P, 1999. "Globalisation and the Market for Team-Mates," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(454), pages 15-40, March.
    34. Prat, Andrea, 2002. "Should a team be homogeneous?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1187-1207, July.
    35. Michalis Mitrotasios & Joaquin Gonzalez-Rodenas & Vasilis Armatas & Rafael Aranda, 2019. "The creation of goal scoring opportunities in professional soccer. Tactical differences between Spanish La Liga, English Premier League, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 452-465, May.
    36. Benjamin Balsmeier & Bernd Frick & Michael Hickfang, 2019. "The impact of skilled immigrants on their local teammates’ performance," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 97-103, January.
    37. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    38. Jens Suedekum & Katja Wolf & Uwe Blien, 2014. "Cultural Diversity and Local Labour Markets," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 173-191, January.
    39. Hugo Sarmento & M. Teresa Anguera & Antonino Pereira & Adilson Marques & Jorge Campaniço & José Leitão, 2014. "Patterns of Play in the Counterattack of Elite Football Teams - A Mixed Method Approach," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 411-427, August.
    40. Ager, Philipp & Brückner, Markus, 2013. "Cultural diversity and economic growth: Evidence from the US during the age of mass migration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 76-97.
    41. Alex Krumer & Michael Lechner, 2018. "Midweek Effect On Soccer Performance: Evidence From The German Bundesliga," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 193-207, January.
    42. Tom Fangyun Tan & Serguei Netessine, 2019. "When You Work with a Superman, Will You Also Fly? An Empirical Study of the Impact of Coworkers on Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(8), pages 3495-3517, August.
    43. Dobson,Stephen & Goddard,John, 2011. "The Economics of Football," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521517140, January.
    44. Thomas Dohmen & Jan Sauermann, 2016. "Referee Bias," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 679-695, September.
    45. Bove, Vincenzo & Elia, Leandro, 2017. "Migration, Diversity, and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 227-239.
    46. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Eliana La Ferrara, 2011. "A Generalized Index of Fractionalization," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(312), pages 723-750, October.
    47. Jonathan Guryan & Kory Kroft & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2009. "Peer Effects in the Workplace: Evidence from Random Groupings in Professional Golf Tournaments," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 34-68, October.
    48. Leo Kahane & Neil Longley & Robert Simmons, 2013. "The Effects of Coworker Heterogeneity on Firm-Level Output: Assessing the Impacts of Cultural and Language Diversity in the National Hockey League," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 302-314, March.
    49. Alvarez, J. & Forrest, D. & Sanz, I. & Tena, J.D., 2011. "Impact of importing foreign talent on performance levels of local co-workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 287-296, June.
    50. Eric P. Bettinger & Bridget Terry Long, 2005. "Do Faculty Serve as Role Models? The Impact of Instructor Gender on Female Students," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 152-157, May.
    51. Saravanan Kesavan & Bradley R. Staats & Wendell Gilland, 2014. "Volume Flexibility in Services: The Costs and Benefits of Flexible Labor Resources," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1884-1906, August.
    52. Joseph Price & Lars Lefgren & Henry Tappen, 2013. "Interracial Workplace Cooperation: Evidence From The Nba," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 1026-1034, January.
    53. van Knippenberg, Daan & Mell, Julija N., 2016. "Past, present, and potential future of team diversity research: From compositional diversity to emergent diversity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 135-145.
    54. Cristian L. Dezsö & David Gaddis Ross, 2012. "Does female representation in top management improve firm performance? A panel data investigation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9), pages 1072-1089, September.
    55. Frick, Bernd, 2011. "Gender differences in competitiveness: Empirical evidence from professional distance running," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 389-398, June.
    56. Francesco Addesa & Matteo Pazzona & Giambattista Rossi, 2022. "Migrant diversity and team performance in a high‐skilled labour market," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 365-384, August.
    57. Krumer, Alex & Lechner, Michael, 2017. "First in first win: Evidence on schedule effects in round-robin tournaments in mega-events," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 412-427.
    58. Samuel Bazzi & Michael A. Clemens, 2013. "Blunt Instruments: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Identifying the Causes of Economic Growth," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 152-186, April.
    59. repec:hal:pseose:hal-01304131 is not listed on IDEAS
    60. Uwe Blien & Linda Borrs & Jens Südekum & Katja Wolf, 2014. "Local Labour Markets and Cultural Diversity," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(2), pages 27-34, 07.
    61. Matt Lowe, 2021. "Types of Contact: A Field Experiment on Collaborative and Adversarial Caste Integration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(6), pages 1807-1844, June.
    62. repec:ces:ifodic:v:12:y:2014:i:2:p:19116211 is not listed on IDEAS
    63. Dale-Olsen, Harald & Finseraas, Henning, 2020. "Linguistic diversity and workplace productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    64. Thomas J. Dohmen, 2008. "The Influence Of Social Forces: Evidence From The Behavior Of Football Referees," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(3), pages 411-424, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beine, Michel & Peracchi, Silvia & Zanaj, Skerdilajda, 2023. "Ancestral diversity and performance: Evidence from football data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 193-214.
    2. Enzo Brox & Michael Lechner, 2024. "Teamwork and Spillover Effects in Performance Evaluations," Papers 2403.15200, arXiv.org.
    3. Michele Baggio & Metin Cosgel, 2023. "Racial Diversity and Team Performance: Evidence from the American Offshore Whaling Industry," Working papers 2023-04, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2024.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brox, Enzo & Krieger, Tommy, 2019. "Birthplace diversity and team performance," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-020, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Ceren Ozgen, 2021. "The economics of diversity: Innovation, productivity and the labour market," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1168-1216, September.
    3. Frédéric Docquier & Riccardo Turati & Jérôme Valette & Chrysovalantis Vasilakis, 2016. "Multiculturalism and Growth: Skill-Specific Evidence from the Post-World War II Period," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2016028, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    4. Frédéric Docquier & Riccardo Turati & Jérôme Valette & Chrysovalantis Vasilakis, 2020. "Birthplace diversity and economic growth: evidence from the US states in the Post-World War II period [Cultural diversity and economic growth: evidence from the US during the age of mass migration]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 321-354.
    5. Francesco Campo & Mariapia Mendola & Andrea Morrison & Gianmarco Ottaviano, "undated". "Immigrant Inventors and Diversity in the Age of Mass Migration," Development Working Papers 464, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    6. Beine, Michel & Peracchi, Silvia & Zanaj, Skerdilajda, 2023. "Ancestral diversity and performance: Evidence from football data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 193-214.
    7. Francesco Addesa & Matteo Pazzona & Giambattista Rossi, 2022. "Migrant diversity and team performance in a high‐skilled labour market," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 365-384, August.
    8. Michel Beine & Silvia Peracchi & Skerdilajda Zanaj, 2021. "Genetic Diversity and Performance: Evidence from Fooball Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 9188, CESifo.
    9. Francesco Campo & Mariapia Mendola & Andrea Morrison & Gianmarco Ottaviano, "undated". "Immigrant Inventors and Diversity in the Age of Mass Migration," Development Working Papers 464, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    10. Dany Bahar & Hillel Rapoport & Riccardo Turati, 2019. "Does Birthplace Diversity Affect Economic Complexity? Cross-Country Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 7950, CESifo.
    11. Trax, Michaela & Brunow, Stephan & Suedekum, Jens, 2015. "Cultural diversity and plant-level productivity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 85-96.
    12. Francesco Campo & Mariapia Mendola & Andrea Morrison & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2022. "Talents and Cultures: Immigrant Inventors and Ethnic Diversity in the Age of Mass Migration," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(5), pages 1971-2012.
    13. Bahar, Dany & Rapoport, Hillel & Turati, Riccardo, 2022. "Birthplace diversity and economic complexity: Cross-country evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    14. Ozbugday, Fatih Cemil, 2019. "Kültür ve Ekonomik Başarı [Culture and Economic Success]," MPRA Paper 96734, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Gianluca Orefice & Hillel Rapoport & Gianluca Santoni, 2021. "How Do Immigrants Promote Exports? Networks, Knowledge, Diversity," CESifo Working Paper Series 9288, CESifo.
    16. Scott L. Fulford & Ivan Petkov & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2020. "Does it matter where you came from? Ancestry composition and economic performance of US counties, 1850–2010," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 341-380, September.
    17. Dale-Olsen, Harald & Finseraas, Henning, 2020. "Linguistic diversity and workplace productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Gabor Bekes & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2022. "Cultural homophily and collaboration in superstar teams," CEP Discussion Papers dp1873, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    19. Eva M. Buitrago & M. Ángeles Caraballo, 2022. "Measuring social diversity in economic literature: An overview for cross‐country studies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 880-934, September.
    20. Adam Levai & Riccardo Turati, 2021. "The Impact of Immigration on Workers’ Protection," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2021021, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 07 Sep 2021.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Birthplace diversity; Globalization; Multinational working teams; Productivity; Soccer; Team composition; Team performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • F66 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Labor
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:79:y:2022:i:c:s0927537122001786. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.