Specialization and Performance: Evidence from NCAA 4 × 400 m Relay Times

Candon Johnson, Robert Schultz and Joshua Hall
Additional contact information
Candon Johnson: Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA
Robert Schultz: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA

Economies, 2020, vol. 8, issue 4, 1-7

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of having open 400 meter (400 m) runners on NCAA relay teams. Using data from 2012–2016 containing the top 100 4 × 400 m in each NCAA Division relay times for each year, it is found that more 400 m specialists lead to an increase in the overall performance of the team, measured by a decrease in relay times. The effect is examined across Division I–III NCAA track teams. The results are consistent across each division. We view this as a test of the role of specialization on performance. Using runners who specialize in 400 m races should increase overall team performance as long as specialization does not lead to an inefficient allocation of team human capital. An additional performance measure is used examining the difference between projected and actual relay times. Divisions I and II are found to perform better than projected with an increase in 400 m runners, but there is no effect found in Division III.

Keywords: specialization; running; peer effects; Division III (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E F I J O Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/8/4/96/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/8/4/96/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:8:y:2020:i:4:p:96-:d:440210

Access Statistics for this article

Economies is currently edited by Ms. Adore Zhou

More articles in Economies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().