Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

3-2015

Publication Title

IZA Discussion Paper No. 8934

Pages

30 pages

Abstract

This paper analyzes potential gender differences in competitive environments using a sample of over 100,000 professional tennis matches. We focus on two phenomena of the labor and sports economics literature: the hot-hand and clutch-player effects. First, we find strong evidence for the hot-hand (cold-hand) effect. Every additional win in the most recent ten Tour matches raises the likelihood of prevailing in the current encounter by 3.1 (males) to 3.3 percentage points (females). Second, top male and female players are excelling in Grand Slam tournaments, arguably the most important events in tennis. For men, we also find evidence for top players winning more tie-breaks at Grand Slams. Overall, we find virtually no gender differences for the hot-hand effect and only minor distinctions for the clutch-player effect.

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Published in final edited form as:

Jetter, M., & Walker, J. K. (2015). Game, set, and match: Do women and men perform differently in competitive situations? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 119, 96-108. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.07.017

Original Publication Citation

Jetter, Michael and Walker, Jay K., Game, set, and match: Do women and men perform differently in competitive situations?. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8934. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2589776

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