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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of incentives on sabotage: The case of Spanish football
AU - del Corral, J
AU - Prieto-Rodriguez, J
AU - Simmons, R
PY - 2010/6
Y1 - 2010/6
N2 - A growing literature examines adverse behavior as unintended consequences of incentives. We test Lazear’s hypothesis that states that if rewards were dependent solely on relative performance then an increase in rewards would induce agents to engage in sabotage activity to reduce rivals’ output. We test this hypothesis using the natural experiment of a rule change in Spanish football, the increase in points for winning a league match from two to three. We find, consistent with Lazear’s hypothesis, that teams in a winning position were more likely to commit offences punishable by dismissal of a player after this change.
AB - A growing literature examines adverse behavior as unintended consequences of incentives. We test Lazear’s hypothesis that states that if rewards were dependent solely on relative performance then an increase in rewards would induce agents to engage in sabotage activity to reduce rivals’ output. We test this hypothesis using the natural experiment of a rule change in Spanish football, the increase in points for winning a league match from two to three. We find, consistent with Lazear’s hypothesis, that teams in a winning position were more likely to commit offences punishable by dismissal of a player after this change.
KW - incentives
KW - sabotage
KW - rules
KW - red cards
KW - football
U2 - 10.1177/1527002509340666
DO - 10.1177/1527002509340666
M3 - Journal article
VL - 11
SP - 243
EP - 260
JO - Journal of Sports Economics
JF - Journal of Sports Economics
SN - 1527-0025
IS - 3
ER -