Technological Change and Obsolete Skills: Evidence from Men's Professional Tennis

Ian Fillmore () and Jonathan Hall
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Ian Fillmore: Washington University in St. Louis

No 2021-029, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: Technological innovation can raise the returns to some skills while making others less valuable or even obsolete. We study the effects of such skill-altering technological change in the context of men's professional tennis, which was unexpectedly transformed by the invention of composite racquets during the late 1970s. We explore the consequences of this innovation on player productivity, entry, and exit. We find that young players benefited at the expense of older players and that the disruptive effects of the new racquets persisted over two to four generations.

Keywords: technological change; human capital; tennis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 O33 Z22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-his, nep-lma, nep-spo and nep-tid
Note: MIP
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Fillmo ... ills-mens-tennis.pdf First version, June 11, 2021 (application/pdf)
http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Fillmo ... -tennis_appendix.pdf Online appendix (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Technological change and obsolete skills: Evidence from men’s professional tennis (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-029

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