IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v34y2002i2p167-177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring discrimination in major league baseball: evidence from the baseball hall of fame

Author

Listed:
  • R. Todd Jewell
  • Robert Brown
  • Scott Miles

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of race on player induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, concentrating on a player's first ballot. Past research has found some evidence of discrimination in voting against retired Major League Baseball players who were born in a Latin American country and against American-born black players. This study finds that estimates of discrimination in Hall of Fame voting are sensitive to specification. However, we do find limited evidence that retired players who are both black and Latin face some voting discrimination. Furthermore, the results show that race does not seem to affect whether a player actually receives enough votes to get into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot. Instead, it appears that any discrimination in voting is concentrated among those players who would not have received enough votes to enter the Hall of Fame based solely on their career statistics.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:34:y:2002:i:2:p:167-177
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840010034244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840010034244
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036840010034244?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lawrence M. Kahn, 1992. "The Effects of Race on Professional Football Players' Compensation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(2), pages 295-310, January.
    2. Kahn, Lawrence M & Sherer, Peter D, 1988. "Racial Differences in Professional Basketball Players' Compensation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(1), pages 40-61, January.
    3. Paul Gabriel & Curtis Johnson & Timothy Stanton, 1999. "Customer racial discrimination for baseball memorabilia," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(11), pages 1331-1335.
    4. Clark Nardinelli & Curtis Simon, 1990. "Customer Racial Discrimination in the Market for Memorabilia: The Case of Baseball," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 575-595.
    5. Paul M. Sommers & Noel Quinton, 1982. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball: The Case of the First Family of Free Agents," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 426-436.
    6. Barton Hughes Hamilton, 1997. "Racial discrimination and professional basketball salaries in the 1990s," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 287-296.
    7. Gwartney, James & Haworth, Charles, 1974. "Employer Costs and Discrimination: The Case of Baseball," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(4), pages 873-881, July/Aug..
    8. Gabriel, Paul E & Johnson, Curtis & Stanton, Timothy J, 1995. "An Examination of Customer Racial Discrimination in the Market for Baseball Memorabilia," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 215-230, April.
    9. Greene, William H, 1981. "Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error: Comment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(3), pages 795-798, May.
    10. 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.
    11. Eleanor Brown & Richard Spiro & Diane Keenan, 1991. "Wage and Nonwage Discrimination in Professional Basketball: Do Fans Affect It?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 333-345, July.
    12. Robert Brown & R. Jewell, 1995. "Race, revenues, and college basketball," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 75-90, March.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Robert Muñoz, Jr., 2012. "Beyond Race Cards in America’s Pastime: An Appreciative Reply to Findlay and Santos," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(2), pages 141-148, May.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.

    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. Eric Stone & Ronald Warren, 1999. "Customer discrimination in professional basketball: evidence from the trading-card market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 679-685.
    2. 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.
    3. Rosen, Sherwin & Sanderson, Allen, 2001. "Labour Markets in Professional Sports," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(469), pages 47-68, February.
    4. Leonard, Jonathan & Levine, David I., 2006. "Diversity, Discrimination, and Performance," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt2p3880ms, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    5. 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.
    6. Kahn, Lawrence M., 2009. "The Economics of Discrimination: Evidence from Basketball," IZA Discussion Papers 3987, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. 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.
    8. Leonard, Jonathan S. & Levine, David I., 2003. "Diversity, discrimination, and performance," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt19d1c3n3, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    9. 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.
    10. Quinn Andrew Wesley Keefer, 2013. "Compensation Discrimination for Defensive Players," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(1), pages 23-44, February.
    11. R. Todd Jewell & David J. Molina, 2005. "An Evaluation of the Relationship Between Hispanics and Major League Soccer," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 6(2), pages 160-177, May.
    12. Richard C. K. Burdekin & Richard T. Hossfeld & Janet Kiholm Smith, 2005. "Are NBA Fans Becoming Indifferent to Race? Evidence From the 1990s," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 6(2), pages 144-159, May.
    13. Myers Caitlin Knowles, 2008. "Discrimination as a Competitive Device: The Case of Local Television News," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, August.
    14. Hoang, Ha & Rascher, Dan, 1999. "The NBA, Exit Discrimination, and Career Earnings," MPRA Paper 3542, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Jeffrey Chu & Saralees Nadarajah & Emmanuel Afuecheta & Stephen Chan & Ying Xu, 2014. "A statistical study of racism in English football," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2915-2937, September.
    16. Francisco Rosas & Peter F. Orazem, 2014. "Is Self-Sufficiency for Women’s Collegiate Athletics a Hoop Dream? Willingness to Pay for Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tickets," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 15(6), pages 579-600, December.
    17. 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.
    18. Barry Reilly, 2014. "Labour market discrimination," Chapters, in: John Goddard & Peter Sloane (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football, chapter 15, pages 238-258, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:taf:applec:v:34:y:2002:i:2:p:167-177. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    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.