Employees’ Performance Variation over Fixed-Term Contracts - Evidence from the National Hockey League

We investigate whether employees vary their performance during fixed-term contracts. We follow National Hockey League players’ performance over ten seasons. We use a two-stage least square fixed effect model to address empirical limitations in previous studies. We find that players’ performance varies at the end of the contract depending on ability, tenure, and (geographical) willingness to move. In particular, long-tenure and low-ability short-tenure workers vary their performance, depending on their continent of origin; these results might be due to different willingness to move, at different stages of players’ career.