The CajaCanarias Cabildo Insular de Tenerife Chair of Economics and Mobility at the University of La Laguna is organizing a research seminar entitled “The Leadership Gap” on September 21st at 5:00 PM, which will be taught by Pedro Rey Biel, Professor of Behavioral Economics in the Department of Economics, Accounting and Finance at ESADE Business School, at Ramon Llull University.

Rey Biel completed his PhD in Economics at University College London and his research combines theoretical and empirical methodologies, with laboratory and field experiments, to understand how incentive design affects economic decision-making. He has published articles in leading academic economics journals, such as American Economic Review,  Journal of European Economic Association, he Journal of Economic Perspectives, European Economic Review y The Economic Journal and also in leading field journals, such as Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Quantitative Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization y Experimental Economics.

In the research seminar, we analyze how modern work increasingly relies on teams performing non-routine analytical tasks; however, little is known about whether managers understand what makes teams effective. We studied the gap between beliefs and reality by taking advantage of a unique opportunity to combine belief data from 3,000 hiring managers with performance data from over 1,000 teams. Managers' beliefs about what makes teams effective are generally correct, but they systematically underestimate leadership. We show that training at a top business school reduces MBA students' misperceptions, but does not close the leadership gap. The results highlight a widespread and persistent misconception among managers about the value of leadership.