Family Connections in Motorsports: The Case of Formula One

Craig Depken, Peter Groothuis and Kurt W. Rotthoff

No 16-13, Working Papers from Department of Economics, Appalachian State University

Abstract: Many careers find within-family career following common including law, politics, business, agriculture, medicine, entertainment, and professional sports. As children enter the same career as their parents, there are potential benefits: physical-capital transfer, human-capital transfer, brandname- loyalty transfer, and/or nepotism. In Formula One (auto racing) career following is also common where many sons follow their father into racing and many brothers race at the same time. Using a panel describing the annual statistics for drivers from 1953-2011, we find that the brothers of Formula One drivers appear to benefit from human capital transfer and nepotism but that sons gain little from human capital transfer and do not enjoy nepotism. We do find, however, that only the best drivers have sons who follow them into racing suggesting that sons can extend the brand name-loyalty their famous fathers have created. Key Words: Motorsports, Nepotism, Human Capital, Brand Loyalty.

JEL-codes: L83 Z20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mkt, nep-sog and nep-spo
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:apl:wpaper:16-13

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