Saturday, October 27, 2007

Yes, Soccer is a window on globalization

Dani Rodrik asks;
Do you want to understand how globalization reshapes wealth and opportunity in the world? Look no further than soccer--the sport that everyone in the world (besides the U.S.) calls football. I know, this is not an original idea. There is at least one best seller on the topic, but while it is a readable one it barely scratches the surface of the interesting issues.


Or read Milanovic, GLOBALIZATION AND GOALS: Does soccer show the way?

Or watch the World Bank event; Globalization and Goals: Does Soccer Show the Way?;

Football, or soccer, is the most globalized sport in the world due in part to modern communication technologies and the removal of limits on the number of foreign players in soccer leagues. As players have begun to circulate freely among teams, these sports clubs have become more commercially-minded and focused on gathering the most talented or skilled players in hopes of winning games, boosting attendance, and increasing revenue. This free circulation of labor leads to an overall increase in output as the best players are paired with other top players on well-funded teams. However, as this improves quality of the game on the whole, it is accompanied by an increase in overall inequality.

During this event, Branko Milanovic, Lead Economist, World Bank, and Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, presented his research which argued that free circulation of labor, increasing returns, and endogenous skills, under conditions of unequal initial distribution of resources, have produced an increasing concentration of outcomes in soccer results. He then argued that the same case can be made for incomes when labor is allowed to move freely. According to Milanovic, the results illustrate the need for global institutions, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in the case of soccer, to improve the outcomes of efficiency and inequality that have been unleashed by globalization.


Or watch the following Pepsi Ad;

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