Impact of importing foreign talent on performance levels of local co-workers Articles uri icon

authors

  • ALVAREZ, J.
  • FORREST, D.
  • SANZ, I.
  • TENA HORRILLO, JUAN DE DIOS

publication date

  • June 2011

start page

  • 287

end page

  • 296

issue

  • 3

volume

  • 18

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0927-5371

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1879-1034

abstract

  • When skilled labour is imported to work in a creative industry, local workers may benefit, in terms of their own level of skill, through contact with new techniques and practices. European basketball offers an opportunity to investigate the reality of this general claim. For a panel of 47 European countries observed over more than twenty years, we model probability of qualification for, and subsequent performance in, Olympic Tournaments and World and European Championships. We demonstrate that, consistent with the spillover hypothesis, an increase in the number of foreigners in a domestic league tends to generate a subsequent improvement in the performance of the national team (which has to be comprised only of local players)