Nash at Wimbledon: Evidence from Half a Million Serves

Gauriot, R; Page, L; Wooders, J

Nash at Wimbledon: Evidence from Half a Million Serves

Gauriot, R Page, L Wooders, J

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Publisher:: SSRN
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: 2016, pp. 1 - 48
Issue Date:: 2016-09-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Gauriot, R	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Page, L	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Wooders, J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4206-7137	en_US
dc.date.issued	2016-09-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	2016, pp. 1 - 48	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/116715
dc.description.abstract	Minimax and its generalization to mixed strategy Nash equilibrium is the cornerstone of our understanding of strategic situations that require decision makers to be unpredictable. Using a dataset of nearly half a million serves from over 3000 matches, we examine whether the behavior of professional tennis players is consistent with the Minimax Hypothesis. The large number of matches in our dataset requires the development of a novel statistical test, which we show is more powerful than the tests used in prior related studies. We find that win rates conform remarkably closely to the theory for men, but conform somewhat less neatly for women. We show that the behavior in the field of more highly ranked (i.e., better) players conforms more closely to theory.	en_US
dc.publisher	SSRN	en_US
dc.relation	http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140103566
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.2139/ssrn.2850919	en_US
dc.title	Nash at Wimbledon: Evidence from Half a Million Serves	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.for	140206 Experimental Economics	en_US
utslib.for	140104 Microeconomic Theory	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business/Economics Discipline
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	false	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2850919	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published online	en_US

Abstract:

Minimax and its generalization to mixed strategy Nash equilibrium is the cornerstone of our understanding of strategic situations that require decision makers to be unpredictable. Using a dataset of nearly half a million serves from over 3000 matches, we examine whether the behavior of professional tennis players is consistent with the Minimax Hypothesis. The large number of matches in our dataset requires the development of a novel statistical test, which we show is more powerful than the tests used in prior related studies. We find that win rates conform remarkably closely to the theory for men, but conform somewhat less neatly for women. We show that the behavior in the field of more highly ranked (i.e., better) players conforms more closely to theory.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/116715