FiT Publishing

Economic research on racial discrimination frequently employs data from sports. We analyze admission decisions for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (HOF) for evidence of discrimination against Black National Basketball Association (NBA) players from the 1950s to the 2010s. Our results suggest that, holding career performance constant, the average Black former All-Star, who is not currently in the HOF, is about five percentage points less likely to be admitted into the HOF compared to similar non-Black All-Stars. This represents about a 50% reduction in the probability of admission into...Read more

Examinations of racial discrimination hinge upon the ability of the researcher to accurately measure worker productivity. To overcome this difficulty, researchers have utilized data from professional sports. Unlike many industries, professional sports provide an abundance of performance measures for the individual worker. Unfortunately, the abundance itself may pose a problem, as researchers face a number of plausible measurements of worker performance. As we show, the choice of measurements does impact the results. Additionally, we show that race can also be measured in a variety of ways...Read more