Arbeitspapier
The Effect of Individual Uncertainty on the Specificity of Human Capital: Empirical Evidence from Professional Soccer
This study uses the case of professional soccer to investigate the determinants of human capital (HC) specificity. Inspired by labor market research, we formulate three hypotheses on how uncertainty about the usefulness of individuals' (more productive) specific skills affects their investment in (more flexible) general skills. The empirical analysis is based on unique panel data on school grades, soccer evaluations, and the sociodemographic characteristics of 90 elite players from the youth academy of a German Bundesliga club. We find that senior and long-serving players, who are comparably certain that their (soccer) specific capital will be sufficient to ensure a lucrative professional contract, invest less in general HC at school. Expected soccer performance, in contrast, has a counterintuitive positive effect. Our results expand knowledge on the factors influencing HC specificity from the macro to the subject level and highlight practical implications for institutions that train gifted individuals.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: CREMA Working Paper ; No. 2015-07
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Education and Research Institutions: General
Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Expectations; Speculations
Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
- Subject
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Individual uncertainty
human capital
skill specificity
professional soccer
youth academy
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Merkel, Steffen
Schmidt, Sascha L.
Torgler, Benno
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA)
- (where)
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Zürich
- (when)
-
2015
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Merkel, Steffen
- Schmidt, Sascha L.
- Torgler, Benno
- Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA)
Time of origin
- 2015
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