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Women and competition in elimination tournaments: evidence from professional tennis data

Author

Listed:
  • François Rycx
  • Thierry Lallemand
  • Robert Plasman

Abstract

This article examines how professional female tennis players react to (a) prize incentives and (b) heterogeneity in ex ante players' abilities. It is found that a larger prize spread encourages women to increase effort, even when controlling for many tournament and player characteristics. Further results indicate that uneven contests lead favorites to win more games and underdogs to be less performing. They also show that the performance differential among players increases with the ranking differential. These findings suggest that the outcome of a match is more linked to players' abilities than to players' incentives to adjust effort according to success chances.

Suggested Citation

  • François Rycx & Thierry Lallemand & Robert Plasman, 2008. "Women and competition in elimination tournaments: evidence from professional tennis data," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/5607, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/5607
    Note: SCOPUS: ar.j
    as

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Incentives; Performance; Tennis; Tournaments; Women;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

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