European Business Schools Librarian's Group
Working Papers,
Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics
No 2-2026: Born out-of-season: Talent Allocation and Economic Conditions
Marta Boczon () and Battista Severgnini ()
Additional contact information
Marta Boczon: Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School, Postal: Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics, Porcelaenshaven 16 A. 1. floor, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Battista Severgnini: Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School, Postal: Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics, Porcelaenshaven 16 A. 1. floor, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Abstract: This paper studies how regional economic conditions, birth timing, and institutional rules shape talent allocation into high-risk/high-reward payoff structure occupations. Using rich data on English-born professional footballers and exploiting exogenous variation from European Structural Funds in the United Kingdom (1990–2000), we show that improved local conditions reduced the share of summer-born children, who are disadvantaged by age-based cutoffs in youth academies but exhibit higher underlying talent. Although regional income per capita did not significantly change, fertility timing shifted, shrinking this high-potential group: players born after the intervention exhibit lower peak market values, reflecting how economic and institutional factors can misallocate talent.
Keywords: Talent allocation; Early-life conditions; Birth-timing; Professional sports
Language: English
45 pages, January 12, 2026
Full text files
c83fb179-7fed-4082-aeb4-5c5d2f9ffca1Full text
- Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics
- Ordering Working Papers
- Home page for this series
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Lars Nondal ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().
RePEc:hhs:cbsnow:2026_002This page generated on 2026-01-13 04:36:04.