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What Can International Cricket Teach Us About the Role of Luck in Labor Markets?

SSRN Electronic Journal
2009
  • 1
    Citations
  • 4,666
    Usage
  • 6
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    1
    • Citation Indexes
      1
  • Usage
    4,666
    • Abstract Views
      3,985
    • Downloads
      681
  • Captures
    6
  • Ratings
    • Download Rank
      76,982

Article Description

How important is luck in labor market outcomes? This paper uses a new dataset of all international test cricketers who debuted between 1950 and 1985 to address this question. We present evidence that a player’s debut performance is strongly affected by an exogenous source of variation: whether the debut series is played at home or abroad. This allows us to identify the role of luck — factors unrelated to ability — in shaping future career outcomes. We find that players lucky enough to debut at home — a good first job — perform significantly better on debut. We also find that debut performance has a large and persistent impact on long run career outcomes in part because team managements use information inefficiently.

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