Monitoring and Employee Shirking: Evidence From MLB Umpires

Neoclassical principal–agent theory predicts stricter monitoring should reduce employee shirking; however, recent analyses indicate social aspects of principal–agent relationships may result in “crowding out” of disciplinary effects. Asymmetric implementation of an automated pitch-tracking system in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bradbury, J.C (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications Ltd 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
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020 |a 15270025 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a Monitoring and Employee Shirking: Evidence From MLB Umpires 
260 0 |b SAGE Publications Ltd  |c 2019 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002518808350 
520 3 |a Neoclassical principal–agent theory predicts stricter monitoring should reduce employee shirking; however, recent analyses indicate social aspects of principal–agent relationships may result in “crowding out” of disciplinary effects. Asymmetric implementation of an automated pitch-tracking system in baseball allows for the comparison of monitored and unmonitored umpires to identify shirking in light of incentives. Estimates identify some reduced shirking with monitoring; however, overall, umpires appeared to be quite sensitive to league directives absent technological monitoring. Extreme sensitivity to MLB mandates when unmonitored by the new technology indicates that preexisting monitoring (which included human oversight and efficiency wages) was effective at limiting shirking. © The Author(s) 2018. 
650 0 4 |a monitoring 
650 0 4 |a moral hazard 
650 0 4 |a principal–agent problem 
700 1 |a Bradbury, J.C.  |e author 
773 |t Journal of Sports Economics