Task-level match effects and worker productivity: evidence from pitchers and catchers

The match between Major League Baseball catchers and pitchers combines characteristics of a for-profit production setting with those of a more intimate, family-type environment. We estimate the importance of these matches at the task level of getting outs and for getting strikeouts using a two-way fixed-effects strategy. We find that match effects matter almost as much as pitcher fixed effects and more than catcher effects for getting an out of any kind. For strikeouts, match effects matter more than catcher effects, if not as much as pitcher effects. We also examine influences on productive matches, showing that match effects are improved when both the pitcher and the catcher are born in the same country, are both born in predominantly Spanish-speaking countries, or as the number of shared experiences increases. All of these fit within a ‘positive assortative’ category of matches. We do not find evidence that relative experience matters for match effects.