Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Unforced Errors: Tennis Serve Data Tells Us Little About Loss Aversion

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Abstract

Nejat Anbarci and collaborators argue in two recent papers that male tennis players’ behaviour is consistent with aversion to losses rather than maximization of expected utility. To prove this point they sketch simple theoretical models. I discuss numerous shortcomings of their theoretical and empirical analysis. I suggest that their conclusion, that male tennis players are loss averse, is unsubstantiated.

Response to this article by Nejat Anbarci, K. Peren Arin, and Christina Zenker: Tennis Serve Data May Elude Some as Serves Get Too Fast (EJW, March 2019).