Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers
Creation-Date: 2020-08-11
Revision-Date: 2021-12-01
Number: 20-049/IV
Author-Name: Bouke Klein Teeselink
Author-Workplace-Name: Yale School of Management
Author-Name: Martijn J. van Assem
Author-Workplace-Name: Vrije Universiteti Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute
Author-Name: Dennie van Dolder
Author-Workplace-Name: Vrije Universiteti Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute, University of Essex
Title: Does Losing Lead to Winning? An Empirical Analysis for Four Sports
Abstract: Berger and Pope (2011) show that being slightly behind increases the likelihood of winning in professional (NBA) and collegiate (NCAA) basketball. We extend their analysis to large samples of Australian football, American football, and rugby matches, but find no evidence of such an eect for these three sports. When we revisit the phenomenon for basketball, we only find supportive evidence for NBA matches from the period analyzed in Berger and Pope. There is no signiffcant eect for NBA matches from outside this
sample period, for NCAA matches, or for matches from the Women's NBA. High-powered meta-analyses across the dierent sports and competitions do not reject the null hypothesis of no eect of being slightly behind on winning. The confidence intervals suggest that the true effect, if existent at all, is likely relatively small.
Classification-JEL: D01, D91, Z20
Keywords: competition, sports, motivation, performance, regression discontinuity
File-URL: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/20049.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 773.667 bytes
Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20200049