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The Golden Anniversary of “The Baseball Players’ Labor Marketâ€

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  • Rodney Fort

    (Washington State University)

Abstract

Rottenberg’s “The Baseball Players’ Labor Market†holds the original ideas behind many threads of the sports economics literature. Most well known, the article contains both the invariance proposition (IP) and the uncertainty-of-outcome hypothesis. But there is also a rather complete specification of attendance demand and much more. Given this, it is strange that the IP has been “morphed†into the Coase theorem in portions of the sports economics literature. Rottenberg deserves better than footnote status, and an insightful empirical test is lost in this transformation. This article documents this and tests the IP directly on an occurrence missed so far in the literature (but also documented by Rottenberg) to point out the continued importance of the IP, even up to the golden anniversary of its original publication.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodney Fort, 2005. "The Golden Anniversary of “The Baseball Players’ Labor Marketâ€," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 6(4), pages 347-358, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:6:y:2005:i:4:p:347-358
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002505281226
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Walter C. Neale, 1964. "The Peculiar Economics of Professional Sports," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 78(1), pages 1-14.
    2. Simon Rottenberg, 1956. "The Baseball Players' Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(3), pages 242-242.
    3. Daniel Rascher, 1997. "A model of a professional sports league," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 3(3), pages 327-328, August.
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    5. John Vrooman, 2000. "The Economics of American Sports Leagues," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 47(4), pages 364-398, September.
    6. Donald Cymrot & James Dunlevy & William Even, 2001. "'Who's on first': an empirical test of the Coase Theorem in baseball," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 593-603.
    7. Rodney Fort & James Quirk, 1995. "Cross-subsidization, Incentives, and Outcomes in Professional Team Sports Leagues," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(3), pages 1265-1299, September.
    8. El-Hodiri, Mohamed & Quirk, James, 1971. "An Economic Model of a Professional Sports League," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(6), pages 1302-1319, Nov.-Dec..
    9. Lehn, Kenneth, 1982. "Property Rights, Risk Sharing, and Player Disability in Major League Baseball," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(2), pages 343-366, October.
    10. repec:bla:scotjp:v:47:y:2000:i:4:p:364-98 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Daly, George & Moore, William J, 1981. "Externalities, Property Rights and the Allocation of Resources in Major League Baseball," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 19(1), pages 77-95, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dominik Schreyer, 2019. "Football spectator no-show behaviour in the German Bundesliga," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(45), pages 4882-4901, September.
    2. Jennifer K. Ashcraft & Craig A. Depken, 2020. "The introduction of the reserve clause in Major League Baseball: evidence of its impact on select player salaries during the 1880s," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 14(1), pages 105-128, January.
    3. Michela Pierini, 2011. "Diritti Tv E Competitive Balance Nel Calcio Professionistico Italiano," Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport, Centro di diritto e business dello Sport, vol. 7(2), pages 87-113, September.
    4. Fort, Rodney & Maxcy, Joel & Diehl, Mark, 2016. "Uncertainty by regulation: Rottenberg׳s invariance principle," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 454-467.
    5. Young Hoon Lee & Rodney Fort, 2023. "Division Play and Outcome Uncertainty in Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(5), pages 639-663, June.
    6. Wladimir Andreff, 2009. "Équilibre compétitif et contrainte budgétaire dans une ligue de sport professionnel," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(3), pages 591-633.
    7. Ruud Koning, 2009. "Sport and Measurement of Competition," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 229-249, June.
    8. Shane Sanders & Justin Ehrlich & James Boudreau, 2017. "Cycles in Team Tennis and Other Paired-Element Contests," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-14, June.
    9. 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).
    10. Todd M. Nesbit & Kerry A. King-Adzima, 2012. "Major League Baseball Attendance and the Role of Fantasy Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(5), pages 494-514, October.
    11. Jason A. Winfree & Rodney Fort, 2008. "Fan Substitution and the 2004-05 NHL Lockout," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(4), pages 425-434, August.
    12. Dominik Schreyer & Daniel Däuper, 2018. "Determinants of spectator no-show behaviour: first empirical evidence from the German Bundesliga," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(21), pages 1475-1480, December.
    13. Young Hoon Lee & Hayley Jang & Rodney Fort, 2016. "Just looking for a good game: competitive balance in the Korean Professional Baseball League," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(33), pages 3104-3115, July.
    14. Marco Di Domizio & Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso, 2022. "Payroll dispersion and performance in soccer: A seasonal perspective analysis for Italian Serie A (2007–2021)," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 513-525, July.
    15. Rodney Fort, 2015. "Managerial Objectives: A Retrospective on Utility Maximization in Pro Team Sports," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 62(1), pages 75-89, February.
    16. Helmut Dietl & Egon Franck & Martin Grossmann & Markus Lang, 2009. "Contest Theory and its Applications in Sports," Working Papers 0105, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU).

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