COVID-19 infections and short-run worker performance: Evidence from European football

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dc.contributor.authorButler, Daviden
dc.contributor.authorButler, Roberten
dc.contributor.authorFarnell, Alexen
dc.contributor.authorSimmons, Roberten
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-11T13:06:04Z
dc.date.available2024-01-11T13:06:04Z
dc.date.issued2023-12-19en
dc.description.abstractCOVID-19 infections represent a recurrent source of workplace absenteeism impacting labour productivity. Using a unique matched employee-employer dataset, we consider the effects of the virus on the performance of highly valuable employees when returning to work: professional footballers in the top five European leagues. This offers a window to study job scheduling and managerial decision-making. We employ a difference-in-differences (DiD) model that compares the performance of infected players to a matched control group for game tasks that require physical exertion. Results suggest that per-minute performance is unaffected upon returning to play. This is likely due to effective management of minutes on the pitch. We carry out a battery of checks on the primary results to consider causal mechanisms outside of infection that could impact the results such as lockdown breaks, clusters within squads, and scheduling effects. The findings carry an optimistic message and specifically speak to managers supervising physical labour. If appropriately managed, infected workers can return to past performance levels.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationButler, D., Butler, R., Farnell, A. and Simmons, R. (2023) 'COVID-19 infections and short-run worker performance: Evidence from European football', European Journal of Operational Research. 315(2), pp. 750-763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2023.12.017en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2023.12.017en
dc.identifier.endpage763
dc.identifier.issn0377-2217en
dc.identifier.issued2
dc.identifier.journaltitleEuropean Journal of Operational Researchen
dc.identifier.startpage750
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/15356
dc.identifier.volume315
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherElsevier B.V.en
dc.rights© 2023, the Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en
dc.subjectOR in sporten
dc.subjectProductivityen
dc.subjectPerformanceen
dc.subjectFootballen
dc.subjectCOVID-19en
dc.titleCOVID-19 infections and short-run worker performance: Evidence from European footballen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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