Interracial Workplace Cooperation: Evidence from the NBA

Joseph Price, Lars Lefgren, Henry Tappen

NBER Working Paper No. 14749
Issued in February 2009
NBER Program(s):   LS

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. 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.

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