Genetic Diversity and Performance: Evidence from Fooball Data

Abstract

The theoretical impact of genetic diversity is ambiguous since it leads to costs and benefits at the collective level. In this paper, we assess empirically the connection between genetic diversity and the performance of sport teams. Focusing on football (soccer), we built a novel dataset of national teams of European countries that have participated in the European and the World Championships since 1970. Determining the genetic diversity of national teams is based on the distance between the genetic scores of every players' origins in the team. Genetic endowments for each player are recovered using a matching algorithm based on family names. Performance is measured at both the unilateral and bilateral level. Identification of the causal link relies on an instrumental variable strategy that is based on past immigration at the country level about one generation before. Our findings indicate a positive causal link between genetic diversity and teams' performance. We find a substantial effect, a one-standard increase in diversity leading to ranking changes of two to three positions after each stage of a championship.

Foreign players, team production, and technical efficiency: Evidence from European soccer

“…This does not only refer to language differences but also may reflect differences in social and work norms. Although there might be gains from an internationally diverse squad as documented in the literature (Beine et al, 2021), it seems that integration costs weight more here. 19 As shown by Lazear (1999aLazear ( , 1999b, in a competitive environment in which a cohesive and harmonized team is essential, the greater the number of foreign players, the greater the communication costs and the lower the gains from diversity.…”

“…A recent line of research has started to study the role of team diversity in sports teams, documenting mixed findings. Beine et al (2021) documented that genetic diversity among teammates exerts a positive causal effect on team performance. This likely happens because teams can benefit from a larger variety of skills when the squad is composed of a diverse group.…”

“…Beine et al. (2021) documented that genetic diversity among teammates exerts a positive causal effect on team performance. This likely happens because teams can benefit from a larger variety of skills when the squad is composed of a diverse group.…”

“…There is some evidence that there are spillovers in professional sports team production so that both individual and team performance depend on the composition of the team (Arcidiacono et al., 2017; Gelade, 2018; Torgler & Schmidt, 2007). Whereas traditionally the literature has focused on racial discrimination (Kahane, 2005; Szymanski, 2000), a growing body of research has started to pay attention to the effect of cultural diversity on team performance (Addesa et al., 2022; Beine et al., 2021; Kahane et al., 2013; Tovar, 2020). While several works have detected positive gains from labor factor diversity when working together through skill complementarities (e.g., Roupakias & Dimou, 2020), the international mixing of players into the same squad might on the contrary create communication barriers that produce integration costs, in‐line with the seminal works by Lazear (1999a, 1999b).…”