Do male managers increase risk-taking of female teams? Evidence from the NCAA

Rene Böheim, Christoph Freudenthaler, Mario Lackner

Publication: Working/Discussion PaperWU Working Paper

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Abstract

We analyze the effect of the coach's gender on risk-taking in women sports teams using data taken from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball games. We find that the coach's gender has a sizable and significant effect on risk-taking, a finding that is robust to several empirical strategies, including an instrumental variable approach. In particular, we find that risk-taking among teams with a male head coach is 5 percentage points greater than that in teams with a female head coach. This gap is persistent over time and across intermediate game standings. The fact that risk-taking has a significantly positive effect on game success suggests that female coaches should be more risk-taking.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages29
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Publication series

SeriesDepartment of Economics Working Paper Series
Number281

Austrian Classification of Fields of Science and Technology (ÖFOS)

  • 502001 Labour market policy

WU Working Paper Series

  • Department of Economics Working Paper Series

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