Globalized Market for Talents and Inequality: What Can Be Learnt from European Football?

Chrysovalantis Vasilakis

No 2014001, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: This paper takes advantage of the availability of rich panel data on the mobility of talented football players, and the performances of national leagues and teams to quantify the effect of the reduction in mobility restrictions, the 1995 Bosman rule, on global efficiency and cross-country inequality in football. I built a micro-founded model endogenizing migration decisions, inequality and training; I estimated its structural parameters; and I used numerical simulations to compare actual data with a counterfactual no-Bosman trajectory. I found that the Bosman rule (i) increased global efficiency in football by 20% (ii) increased cross-leagues inequality in performance by 25% in terms of output, and (iii) decreased inequality across national teams by 70% .Countries from Africa, South (except Argentina and Brazil) and Central America have produced more talents and benefitted from brain-gain type effects. My results also show that this brain-gain mechanism is the major source of efficiency gains. However, it plays only a minor role in explaining the rising inequality.

Keywords: International Migration; Brain Drain; Globalization; Inequality; European Football (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45
Date: 2014-01-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-mig and nep-spo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Globalized Market for Talents and Inequality: What Can Be Learnt from European Football? (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2014001

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