Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16015
Authors: Benjamin Marx; Vincent Pons; Tavneet Suri
Abstract: We present the results from a field experiment on team diversity. Individuals working as door-to-door canvassers for a non-profit organization were randomly assigned a teammate, a supervisor, and a list of individuals to canvass. This created random variation within teams in the degree of horizontal diversity (between teammates), vertical diversity (between teammates and their supervisor) and external diversity (between teams and the individuals they canvassed). We observe team-level measures of performance and find that horizontal ethnic diversity decreases performance, while vertical diversity often improves performance, and external diversity has no effect. The data on time use suggests that horizontally homogeneous teams organized tasks in a more efficient way, while vertically homogeneous teams exerted lower effort.
Keywords: Ethnic Diversity; Organizations; Labor Management; Team Performance
JEL Codes: D22; J24; L22; M54; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| external diversity (O36) | performance (D29) |
| horizontal ethnic diversity (J15) | performance (D29) |
| ethnically homogeneous members (J15) | visit completion rates (Y40) |
| vertical diversity (J62) | performance (D29) |
| vertical homogeneity (C21) | likelihood of completing visits (C41) |