许敏波、Oliver Wang:,“Psychological pressure and performance in competitive environments: The first-hole effect in youth golf”, Economics Letters (ABS 3), March 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111007
ABSTRACT: A growing literature in behavioral economics has studied the negative impact of psychological pressure on professional athletes’ performance in sport settings with extreme pressures. This paper expands the literature to a more common sport setting in which both psychological pressure and players’ skills are not extreme. We use a large dataset from the U.S. Kids Golf tournaments to document a first-hole effect in youth golf: golfers’ performance at a hole is significantly worse if they play the hole as the starting hole. The first-hole effect is consistent with the widely held notion of first-tee jitters and inconsistent with alternative explanations.