Too late for talent to kick in? The relative age effect in Argentinian male football

Does a young football (soccer) player's birthdate affect his prospects in the sport? Scholars have found a correlation between early births in the competition year among young players within the same cohort and improved chances in sports as they advance to other stages. This article is one of the first studies to ask this question about a male premier league in Latin America - the Argentinian A' league. It uses a large-N data-set of all players in the period 2000-2012, around 3000 players. The article finds a large effect of the player's relative age on his prospect to become a professional, though the effect is only present in the case of Argentinian-born players. The effect evaporates once a set of measures are employed to compare professional players with one another. The article contributes to the discussion of the biased effect of seemingly neutral institutional policies, and its conclusions may shed light in other areas.