Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/120965 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9315
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using data on about 35,000 professional tennis matches, we test whether men and women react differently to psychological pressure arising from the outcomes of sequential stages in a competition. We show that, with respect to males, females losing the first set are much more likely to play poorly the second set, choking under the pressure of falling behind and receiving negative feedback. The gender differential is stronger in high stakes matches. On the other hand, when players are tied in the third set we do not find any gender difference in players' reactions: this suggests that females do not tend to choke if they do not lag behind. These results are robust controlling for measures of abilities and fitness of players, such as players' rankings, players' ex-ante winning probability, players' rest, players' and tournaments' fixed effects.
Subjects: 
gender differences
psychological pressure
choking under pressure
feedback
tennis
JEL: 
J16
D03
L83
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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