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Peer effects in marathon racing: The role of pace setters

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  • Emerson, Jamie
  • Hill, Brian

Abstract

Marathon races are rank-order tournaments with prizes determined primarily by relative performance. As a result, peer performance is an important determinant of an individual's performance. Peer effects have been extensively studied in a variety of settings, with much of the research concerned with finding a measure of peer performance that is exogenous. We focus our research on marathon races with pace setters as their presence allows for us to identify exogenous peer effects by identifying variation in peer performance and ability that is exogenous. Using data on elite male runners from 2009 to 2014 marathons in Berlin, Chicago, and London, we find the presence of negative exogenous peer effects and this result is robust to a number of peer performance variables. We attribute our result to the self-sorting of runners by ability and the subsequent invidious comparison that occurs in marathons with pace setters.

Suggested Citation

  • Emerson, Jamie & Hill, Brian, 2018. "Peer effects in marathon racing: The role of pace setters," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 74-82.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:52:y:2018:i:c:p:74-82
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2018.03.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Richard J. Paulsen, 2022. "Peer effects and human capital accumulation: Time spent in college and productivity in the National Basketball Association," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3611-3619, December.
    2. Mariia Molodchik & Sofiia Paklina & Petr Parshakov, 2021. "Peer Effects on Individual Performance in a Team Sport," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(5), pages 571-586, June.
    3. Liya WANG & Ritsu KITAGAWA & Takuya TAKAHASHI, 2026. "Affirmative Action, Competitive Intensity, and Effort: Evidence from Japanese speedboat racing," Discussion papers 26003, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Matteo Pazzona, 2022. "Peer interactions and performance in a high‐skilled labour market," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(4), pages 1087-1116, October.
    5. Adrian Chadi & Konstantin Homolka, 2023. "Under (peer) pressure: Experimental evidence on team size and task performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(7), pages 3769-3786, October.
    6. Jamie Emerson & Theresa Manns, 2024. "Risk-taking and performance in marathon running: do pace setters matter?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 44(3), pages 771-780.

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    JEL classification:

    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

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