IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v19y2018i7p1046-1061.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond Moneyball

Author

Listed:
  • Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman
  • Jonathan A. Lanning

Abstract

This study examines the changes in player compensation in Major League Baseball during the last three decades. Specifically, we examine the extent to which recently documented changes in players’ compensation structure based on certain types of productivity fits in with the longer term trends in compensation and identify the value of specific output activities in different time periods. We examine free-agent contracts in 3-year periods across three decades and find significant changes to how players’ past performances are rewarded in free agency beyond the change in those to on-base percentage seen in the mid-2000s. We find evidence that the compensation strategies of baseball teams increased the rewards to “power†statistics beyond home runs in the 1990s from a model that focused on successfully reaching base with a batted ball without a significant regard for the number of bases reached. Similarly, we confirm and expand upon the increased financial return to bases on balls in the late 2000s as found in previous research.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman & Jonathan A. Lanning, 2018. "Beyond Moneyball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(7), pages 1046-1061, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:19:y:2018:i:7:p:1046-1061
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002517704019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527002517704019
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1527002517704019?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paarsch, Harry J & Shearer, Bruce, 2000. "Piece Rates, Fixed Wages, and Incentive Effects: Statistical Evidence from Payroll Records," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(1), pages 59-92, February.
    2. Scully, Gerald W, 1974. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 915-930, December.
    3. Heywood, John S. & Wei, Xiangdong & Ye, Guangliang, 2011. "Piece rates for professors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 285-287.
    4. Lazear, Edward P, 1986. "Salaries and Piece Rates," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 405-431, July.
    5. Mark D. Woolway, 1997. "Using an Empirically Estimated Production Function for Major League Baseball to Examine Worker Disincentives Associated with Multi-Year Contracts," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 41(2), pages 77-83, October.
    6. Daniel Brown & Charles R. Link, 2008. "Population and Bandwagon Effects on Local Team Revenues in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(5), pages 470-487, October.
    7. Anthony Krautmann, 2009. "Market size and the demand for talent in major league baseball," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(25), pages 3267-3273.
    8. Anthony C. Krautmann & John L. Solow, 2009. "The Dynamics of Performance Over the Duration of Major League Baseball Long-Term Contracts," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(1), pages 6-22, February.
    9. Kevin J. Stiroh, 2007. "Playing For Keeps: Pay And Performance In The Nba," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(1), pages 145-161, January.
    10. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    11. Bruce Shearer, 2004. "Piece Rates, Fixed Wages and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(2), pages 513-534.
    12. Anthony C. Krautmann & Thomas D. Donley, 2009. "Shirking in Major League Baseball Revisited," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(3), pages 292-304, June.
    13. Jahn K. Hakes & Raymond D. Sauer, 2006. "An Economic Evaluation of the Moneyball Hypothesis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 173-186, Summer.
    14. Kaplan, Steven N, 1994. "Top Executive Rewards and Firm Performance: A Comparison of Japan and the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(3), pages 510-546, June.
    15. John D. Burger & Stephen J. K. Walters, 2003. "Market Size, Pay, and Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 108-125, May.
    16. David J. Berri & Anthony C. Krautmann, 2006. "Shirking on the Court: Testing for the Incentive Effects of Guaranteed Pay," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 536-546, July.
    17. Jensen, Michael C & Murphy, Kevin J, 1990. "Performance Pay and Top-Management Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 225-264, April.
    18. John M. Abowd, 1990. "Does Performance-Based Managerial Compensation Affect Corporate Performance?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(3), pages 52, April.
    19. Joel G. Maxcy & Rodney D. Fort & Anthony C. Krautmann, 2002. "The Effectiveness of Incentive Mechanisms in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(3), pages 246-255, August.
    20. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "The Sports Business as a Labor Market Laboratory," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 75-94, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Joshua Congdon-Hohman & Jonathan A. Lanning, 2013. "Workers' Responses to Incentives: The Case of Pending MLB Free Agents," Working Papers 1304, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    2. Kevin J. Stiroh, 2007. "Playing For Keeps: Pay And Performance In The Nba," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(1), pages 145-161, January.
    3. Fumarco, Luca & Longley, Neil & Palermo, Alberto & Rossi, Giambattista, 2024. "Strategic Behaviours in a Labour Market with Mobility-Restricting Contractual Provisions: Evidence from the National Hockey League," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1401, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Joshua D. Pitts & Brent A. Evans, 2023. "New contracts and dismissal threats from highly drafted rookies: What motivates NFL quarterbacks?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 4-16, January.
    5. Daniel Weimar & Katrin Scharfenkamp, 2019. "Effort reduction of employer‐to‐employer changers: Empirical evidence from football," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 277-291, April.
    6. Furmaco, L. & Longley, N. & Palermo, A. & Rossi, G., 2021. "Employees’ Performance Variation over Fixed-Term Contracts - Evidence from the National Hockey League," Working Papers 2107, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    7. Rodney Fort & Young Hoon Lee & Taeyeon Oh, 2019. "Quantile Insights on Market Structure and Worker Salaries: The Case of Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(8), pages 1066-1087, December.
    8. Reio Tanji, 2021. "Reference Dependence and Monetary Incentives: Evidence from Major League Baseball," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 20-23, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    9. David J. Berri & John Charles Bradbury, 2010. "Working in the Land of the Metricians," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(1), pages 29-47, February.
    10. Anthony C. Krautmann & Thomas D. Donley, 2009. "Shirking in Major League Baseball Revisited," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 10(3), pages 292-304, June.
    11. Babatunde Buraimo & Bernd Frick & Michael Hickfang & Rob Simmons, 2015. "The Economics of Long-term Contracts in the Footballers' Labour Market," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 62(1), pages 8-24, February.
    12. Jahn K. Hakes & Chad Turner, 2008. "Long-Term Contracts in Major League Baseball," Working Papers 0831, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.
    13. Terry, Ryan P. & McGee, Jeffrey E. & Kass, Malcolm J., 2018. "The not-so-free agent: Non-performance factors that contribute to free agent compensation premiums," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 189-201.
    14. Richard J. Paulsen, 2018. "Contract Options and Performance: The Case of Major League Baseball," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 46(4), pages 379-388, December.
    15. Quinn Keefer, 2021. "Sunk costs in the NBA: the salary cap and free agents," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(6), pages 3445-3478, December.
    16. Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso & Marco Di Domizio, 2021. "Relative wages, payroll structure and performance in soccer. Evidence from Italian Serie A (2007-2019)," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    17. John D. Burger & Stephen J. K. Walters, 2008. "The Existence and Persistence of a Winner's Curse: New Evidence from the (Baseball) Field," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(1), pages 232-245, July.
    18. Boudreaux, Don & Palagashvili, Liya, 2016. "An Economic Analysis of Overtime Pay Regulations," Working Papers 06869, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    19. Baktash, Mehrzad B. & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2022. "Worker stress and performance pay: German survey evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 276-291.
    20. Haupert, Michael & Murray, James, 2011. "Regime Switching and Wages in Major League Baseball under the Reserve Clause," MPRA Paper 29094, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    compensation; incentives; labor markets; baseball;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    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:sae:jospec:v:19:y:2018:i:7:p:1046-1061. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.