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Assessing the Role of Fatigue and Task Switching on Worker Performance. Evidence from MLB Pitchers

Author

Listed:
  • Alex Farnell

    (Department of Economics, Maynooth University.)

  • Dave Berri

    (Southern Utah University)

  • Brian Mills

    (University of Texas)

  • Vincent O’Sullivan

    (Lancaster University)

  • Robert Simmons

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

Opportunities to study how workers respond to the demands of task switching outside of a laboratory setting are rare. In this paper, we use three seasons of (pre Covid) Major League Baseball (MLB) data to see how pitchers are affected by the additional demands of having to bat and run bases. MLB is an ideal setting because of its two-league structure in which the American League has a Designated Hitter rule, allowing teams to nominate a player to bat in place of the pitcher. The National League does not (or did not, pre Covid). We assess changes to a host of performance metrics, and results suggest that task switching in the form of batting is associated with gains across most of our performance measures, but that pitchers should avoid getting on base at all costs. This finding is robust to within game and across league selection of pitchers, and to a placebo test. Classification-J24, M54, Z21, Z22

Suggested Citation

  • Alex Farnell & Dave Berri & Brian Mills & Vincent O’Sullivan & Robert Simmons, 2021. "Assessing the Role of Fatigue and Task Switching on Worker Performance. Evidence from MLB Pitchers," Economics Department Working Paper Series n312-21.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    • Handle: RePEc:may:mayecw:n312-21.pdf
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    Keywords

    Labour Productivity; Task Switching; Baseball;
    All these keywords.

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