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Racial Bias in Newspaper Ratings of Professional Football Players

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  • van Ours, Jan C.
  • ,

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.

Suggested Citation

  • van Ours, Jan C. & ,, 2021. "Racial Bias in Newspaper Ratings of Professional Football Players," CEPR Discussion Papers 16419, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16419
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    4. Finn Spilker & Christian Deutscher & Marius Ötting & Hendrik Sonnabend, 2025. "Favouritism, social pressure, and gender," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 77(3), pages 754-770.
    5. Asmat, Roberto & Borowiecki, Karol J. & Law, Marc T., 2023. "Do experts and laypersons differ? Some evidence from international classical music competitions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 270-290.
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    11. Alrababah, Ala & Marble, William & Mousa, Salma & Siegel, Alexandra Arons, 2024. "Are Minorities Punished More Harshly for Underperformance? Evidence from Premier League Soccer," OSF Preprints 7d2cu, Center for Open Science.
    12. Thrane, Christer, 2025. "Nationalistic bias in experts’ player ratings in football," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    13. Mattia Filomena & Francesco Principe, 2025. "This must be the place: local amenities and superstars’ wages," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 213-235, January.
    14. Enzo Brox & Michael Lechner, 2024. "Teamwork and Spillover Effects in Performance Evaluations," Papers 2403.15200, arXiv.org.
    15. Chen, Shuoyu & Collins, Clay & Collins, Ivy, 2025. "Discrimination and subjective player ratings: Evidence from China," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    16. Chowdhury, Subhasish M. & Jewell, Sarah & Singleton, Carl, 2024. "Can awareness reduce (and reverse) identity-driven bias in judgement? Evidence from international cricket," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    17. Dietl, Helmut M. & Mueller, Steffen Q. & Henriques Pereira, Marco & Lang, Markus, 2025. "Performance under pressure and its impact on compensation: Evidence from professional basketball," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    18. David Butler & Robert Butler, 2025. "The Baby Club: Paternity and Performance in a High‐Pressure Setting," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(2), pages 510-524, May.
    19. Carsten Creutzburg & Wolfgang Maennig & Steffen Q. Mueller, 2024. "From bias to bliss: Racial preferences and worker productivity in tennis," Working Papers 075, Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

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