Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/248756 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. TI 2021-072/V
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
We study whether there is a racial bias in ratings of professional football players in Italian newspapers. We find that there is such a bias. Conditional on objective performance indicators black players receive a lower rating than non-black players. This is not a difference across the board but predominantly present at the lower end of the newspaper rating distribution. The best black players are not subject to a racial bias in ratings. We also find that clubs do not have a racial bias in the wages they pay to players. We speculate that for clubs there is sufficient competition to remove racial wage discrimination. Clubs simply want value for money. Newspaper football experts do seem to have a racial bias in their rating of players. We hypothesize that this might be unconscious discrimination related to stereotyping of black players.
Subjects: 
racial bias
newspaper ratings
professional football
JEL: 
J15
J71
L82
L83
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
912 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.