IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v88y2007i3p729-744.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interscholastic Athletics and Investment in Human Capital

Author

Listed:
  • Michael A. Leeds
  • Cristen Miller
  • Judith Stull

Abstract

Objectives. Several studies, such as Hoberman (1997) and Leeds (2003), have claimed that success in the athletic arena has distorted the human capital decisions of young black men. We test this hypothesis by determining how participation in interscholastic athletics affects the study habits of black and white youths. Methods. We build a theoretical model that allows youths to invest in athletic or academic human capital. We test this model using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey and accounting for possible self‐selection bias. Results. We find that athletic participation does not have a statistically significant impact on the amount of time young black men and women spend studying. The impact for young white men and women is positive and significant, though the impact of playing football and basketball does have a negative impact for young white men. Conclusions. Participating in interscholastic athletics does not have the pervasive negative impact on young black men that Hoberman (1997) and Leeds (2003) claim. The expected negative impact of basketball and football—the so‐called money sports—exists for young white men, though this is offset by the positive impact of participation in athletics per se.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael A. Leeds & Cristen Miller & Judith Stull, 2007. "Interscholastic Athletics and Investment in Human Capital," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 88(3), pages 729-744, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:88:y:2007:i:3:p:729-744
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2007.00480.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2007.00480.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2007.00480.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Néstor Gandelman, 2009. "Selection Biases in Sports Markets," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(5), pages 502-521, October.
    2. Michael A. Leeds, 2015. "Youth sports and the accumulation of human capital," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 129-129, February.
    3. Judith Stull, 2013. "Individual decision-making in a social context: the sociological determinants of female sports participation," Chapters, in: Eva Marikova Leeds & Michael A. Leeds (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Women in Sports, chapter 3, pages 56-70, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Ransom, Michael R. & Ransom, Tyler, 2017. "Do High School Sports Build or Reveal Character?," IZA Discussion Papers 11110, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Ransom, Michael R & Ransom, Tyler, 2018. "Do high school sports build or reveal character? Bounding causal estimates of sports participation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 75-89.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:88:y:2007:i:3:p:729-744. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.