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Male coaches increase the risk-taking of female teams—Evidence from the NCAA

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  • Böheim, René
  • Freudenthaler, Christoph
  • Lackner, Mario

Abstract

We analyze the effect of the coach’s gender on risk-taking in women’s NCAA basketball teams. Coach’s gender has a sizable and significant effect on the team’s risk-taking, a finding that is robust to an instrumental variable approach. We find that women’s teams with a male head coach are 6 percentage points more likely to take risk than women’s teams with a female head coach. This gap is persistent within games and does not change with intermediate performance. Since risk-taking has a positive effect on winning a game, female head coaches could improve their team’s success by taking more risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Böheim, René & Freudenthaler, Christoph & Lackner, Mario, 2025. "Male coaches increase the risk-taking of female teams—Evidence from the NCAA," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:94:y:2025:i:c:s0927537125000193
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102692
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    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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