Fooled by Performance Randomness: Overrewarding Luck
2019 ◽
Vol 101
(4)
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pp. 658-666
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Keyword(s):
We provide evidence of a violation of the informativeness principle whereby lucky successes are overly rewarded. We isolate a quasi-experimental situation where the success of an agent is as good as random. To do so, we use high-quality data on football (soccer) matches and select shots on goal that landed on the goal posts. Using nonscoring shots, taken from a similar location on the pitch, as counterfactuals to scoring shots, we estimate the causal effect of a lucky success (goal) on the evaluation of the player's performance. We find clear evidence that luck is overly influencing managers' decisions and evaluators' ratings. Our results suggest that this phenomenon is likely to be widespread in economic organizations.
2017 ◽
Vol 47
(1)
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pp. 46-55
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Keyword(s):
Keyword(s):
2020 ◽
Vol 26
(4)
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pp. 454-478
2000 ◽
Vol 56
(s1)
◽
pp. s104-s104
2017 ◽
Vol 154
(5)
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pp. 1666-1667
2018 ◽
Vol 128
(1)
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pp. 1-3
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