Performing best when it matters most: evidence from professional tennis

Performing best when it matters most: evidence from professional tennis — Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 84(3), 767–781 (2012)
Authors

Julio González-Díaz

Olivier Gossner

Brian Rogers

Abstract

Stakes affect aggregate performance in a wide variety of settings. At the individual level, we define the critical ability as an agent’s ability to adapt performance to the importance of the situation. We identify individual critical abilities of professional tennis players, relying on point-level data from twelve years of the US Open tournament. We establish persistent heterogeneity in critical abilities. We find a significant statistical relationship between identified critical abilities and overall career success, which validates the identification procedure and suggests that response to pressure is a significant factor for success.

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Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 84(3), 767–781 (2012)

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Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{gonzález-díaz2012,
  author = {González-Díaz, Julio and Gossner, Olivier and Rogers, Brian},
  title = {Performing Best When It Matters Most: Evidence from
    Professional Tennis},
  journal = {Journal of Economic Behavior \& Organization},
  volume = {84},
  number = {3},
  pages = {767–781},
  date = {2012},
  url = {https://gossner.me/papers/performing-best-when-it-matters-most-evidence-from-professional-tennis.html},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jebo.2012.09.021},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {Stakes affect aggregate performance in a wide variety of
    settings. At the individual level, we define the critical ability as
    an agent’s ability to adapt performance to the importance of the
    situation. We identify individual critical abilities of professional
    tennis players, relying on point-level data from twelve years of the
    US Open tournament. We establish persistent heterogeneity in
    critical abilities. We find a significant statistical relationship
    between identified critical abilities and overall career success,
    which validates the identification procedure and suggests that
    response to pressure is a significant factor for success.}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
González-Díaz, Julio, Olivier Gossner, and Brian Rogers. 2012. “Performing Best When It Matters Most: Evidence from Professional Tennis.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 84 (3): 767–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2012.09.021.