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INTERRACIAL WORKPLACE COOPERATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE NBA
Author(s) -
PRICE JOSEPH,
LEFGREN LARS,
TAPPEN HENRY
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00438.x
Subject(s) - basketball , race (biology) , incentive , outcome (game theory) , demographic economics , association (psychology) , economics , psychology , labour economics , social psychology , microeconomics , sociology , geography , gender studies , archaeology , psychotherapist
Using data from the National Basketball Association (NBA), we examine whether patterns of workplace cooperation occur disproportionately among workers of the same race. We find that, holding constant the composition of teammates on the floor, basketball players are no more likely to complete an assist to a player of the same race than a player of a different race. Our confidence interval allows us to reject even small amounts of same‐race bias in passing patterns. We find some evidence of own‐race bias in situations where the outcome of a particular play is less important. Our findings suggest that high levels of interracial cooperation can occur in a setting where workers are operating in a highly visible setting with strong incentives to behave efficiently . ( JEL J15, J71, L23)