Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Fumarco, Luca
• Gibbs, Benjamin G
• Jarvis, Jonathan A
• Rossi, Giambattista
• Baur, Heiner

Titel

The relative age effect reversal among the National Hockey League elite

Ist Teil von

• PloS one, 2017-08, Vol.12 (8), p.e0182827-e0182827

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

EZB-FREE-00999 freely available EZB journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Like many sports in adolescence, junior hockey is organized by age groups. Typically, players born after December 31st are placed in the subsequent age cohort and as a result, will have an age advantage over those players born closer to the end of the year. While this relative age effect (RAE) has been well-established in junior hockey and other professional sports, the long-term impact of this phenomenon is not well understood. Using roster data on North American National Hockey League (NHL) players from the 2008-2009 season to the 2015-2016 season, we document a RAE reversal-players born in the last quarter of the year (October-December) score more and command higher salaries than those born in the first quarter of the year. This reversal is even more pronounced among the NHL "elite." We find that among players in the 90th percentile of scoring, those born in the last quarter of the year score about 9 more points per season than those born in the first quarter. Likewise, elite players in the 90th percentile of salary who are born in the last quarter of the year earn 51% more pay than players born at the start of the year. Surprisingly, compared to players at the lower end of the performance distribution, the RAE reversal is about three to four times greater among elite players.