IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eej/eeconj/v32y2006i2p285-297.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Has Salary Discrimination Really Disappeared From Major League Baseball?

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew C. Palmer

    (The Ohio State University)

  • Randall H. King

    (Department of Economics, University of Akron)

Abstract

Analysis of a detailed data set for the 2000-2001 period shows no evidence of overall racial or ethnic salary discrimination for baseball players. Given prior research, that finding is not unusual. However, when the data set is divided into low, middle, and high salary ranges, a RESST test shows that minorities in the lowest salary group receive significantly lower returns to their skills than do whites. A decomposition of the wage differences for the lowest salary group shows that as much as 86.3% of the black/white and 91.5% of the Hispanic/white salary gap may be due to discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew C. Palmer & Randall H. King, 2006. "Has Salary Discrimination Really Disappeared From Major League Baseball?," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 285-297, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:eej:eeconj:v:32:y:2006:i:2:p:285-297
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://web.holycross.edu/RePEc/eej/Archive/Volume32/V32N2P285_297.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Marburger, 1996. "Racial discrimination and long-term contracts in major league baseball," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 83-94, September.
    2. R. Todd Jewell & Robert Brown & Scott Miles, 2002. "Measuring discrimination in major league baseball: evidence from the baseball hall of fame," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 167-177.
    3. Marshall Medoff, 1975. "A reappraisal of racial discrimination against blacks in professional baseball," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 259-268, March.
    4. Robert Mogull, 1975. "Salary discrimination in major league baseball," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 269-279, March.
    5. Hanssen, F Andrew & Andersen, Torben, 1999. "Has Discrimination Lessened over Time? A Test Using Baseball's All-Star Vote," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(2), pages 326-352, April.
    6. Rodney Fort & Andrew Gill, 2000. "Race and Ethnicity Assessment in Baseball Card Markets," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(1), pages 21-38, February.
    7. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-475, June.
    8. Lawrence M. Kahn, 1991. "Discrimination in Professional Sports: A Survey of the Literature," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 44(3), pages 395-418, April.
    9. Rodney Fort & Joel Maxcy, 2003. "“Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues: An Introductionâ€," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 154-160, May.
    10. Fred A. Bellemore, 2001. "Racial and Ethnic Employment Discrimination," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(4), pages 356-368, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Johnny Ducking & Peter A. Groothuis, 2023. "Positional Segregation and Career Length in Major League Baseball in the 1990s," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 149-159, September.
    2. Jeff Hamrick & John Rasp, 2015. "The Connection Between Race and Called Strikes and Balls," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(7), pages 714-734, October.
    3. Johnny Ducking & Peter Groothuis & James Hill, 2015. "Exit Discrimination in the NFL: A Duration Analysis of Career Length," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 285-299, September.
    4. Holmes, Paul, 2011. "New evidence of salary discrimination in major league baseball," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 320-331, June.
    5. Christopher Jepsen & Lisa Jepsen & Trevor Draisey & Josh Mahoney, 2021. "Race and National Football League Player Salaries After Controlling for Fantasy Statistics and Arrests," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 359-386, May.
    6. Roberto Pedace & Curtis M. Hall, 2012. "Home Safe: No-Trade Clauses and Player Salaries in Major League Baseball," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 627-644, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Holmes, Paul, 2011. "New evidence of salary discrimination in major league baseball," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 320-331, June.
    2. John Goddard & John O. S. Wilson, 2009. "Racial discrimination in English professional football: evidence from an empirical analysis of players' career progression," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 33(2), pages 295-316, March.
    3. Jeff Hamrick & John Rasp, 2015. "The Connection Between Race and Called Strikes and Balls," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(7), pages 714-734, October.
    4. Brunello, Giorgio & Yamamura, Eiji, 2023. "Desperately Seeking a Japanese Yokozuna," IZA Discussion Papers 16536, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. David J. Berri & Rob Simmons, 2009. "Race and the Evaluation of Signal Callers in the National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(1), pages 23-43, February.
    6. David W. Findlay & John M. Santos, 2012. "Race, Ethnicity, and Baseball Card Prices: A Replication, Correction, and Extension of Hewitt, Muñoz, Oliver, and Regoli," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(2), pages 122-140, May.
    7. Kevin Mongeon, 2015. "A Market Test for Ethnic Discrimination in the National Hockey League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(5), pages 460-481, June.
    8. B. Jay Coleman & J. Michael DuMond & Allen K. Lynch, 2008. "An Examination of NBA MVP Voting Behavior," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(6), pages 606-627, December.
    9. Rodney Paul & Andrew Weinbach & Justin Mattingly, 2018. "Tests of Racial Discrimination in a Simple Financial Market: Managers in Major League Baseball," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-10, March.
    10. Brian Volz, 2013. "Race and the Likelihood of Managing in Major League Baseball," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 30-51, March.
    11. Néstor Gandelman, 2009. "Selection Biases in Sports Markets," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(5), pages 502-521, October.
    12. Johnny Ducking & Peter A. Groothuis, 2023. "Positional Segregation and Career Length in Major League Baseball in the 1990s," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 149-159, September.
    13. Johnny Ducking & Peter Groothuis & James Hill, 2015. "Exit Discrimination in the NFL: A Duration Analysis of Career Length," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 285-299, September.
    14. Thomas H. Bruggink & Daniel Williams, 2009. "Discrimination against Europeans in the National Hockey League: Are Players Getting Their Fair Pay?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 54(2), pages 82-90, October.
    15. McCormick, Robert E. & Tollison, Robert D., 2001. "Why do black basketball players work more for less money?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 201-219, February.
    16. Depken II, Craig A. & Ford, Jon M., 2006. "Customer-based discrimination against major league baseball players: Additional evidence from All-star ballots," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1061-1077, December.
    17. Mills Brian M. & Salaga Steven, 2011. "Using Tree Ensembles to Analyze National Baseball Hall of Fame Voting Patterns: An Application to Discrimination in BBWAA Voting," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 7(4), pages 1-32, October.
    18. Roberto Pedace, 2008. "Earnings, Performance, and Nationality Discrimination in a Highly Competitive Labor Market as An Analysis of the English Professional Soccer League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(2), pages 115-140, April.
    19. Martin B. Schmidt & David J. Berri, 2006. "Research Note: What Takes Them Out to the Ball Game?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(2), pages 222-233, May.
    20. Lawrence M. Kahn, 1991. "Discrimination in Professional Sports: A Survey of the Literature," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 44(3), pages 395-418, April.

    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:eej:eeconj:v:32:y:2006:i:2:p:285-297. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Victor Matheson, College of the Holy Cross (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eeaa1ea.html .

    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.