Career Prospects and Effort Incentives: Evidence from Professional Soccer

Jeanine Miklos-Thal, University of Rochester
Hannes Ullrich, University of Zuerich

Abstract

This paper provides direct evidence that future career prospects affect current effort incentives. Using data from professional soccer, we test whether the prospect of being selected to a Euro Cup national team has effects on players' pre-Cup performances. Players who work for the same clubs but are nationals of countries that did not participate in the Euro Cup serve as a control group. We find that the Euro Cup career prospect has substantial positive effects on the performances of players with intermediate chances of being selected to their national team, but negative effects on the performances of players whose nomination is close to certain.