Analysis of Wage Discrimination in Major League Baseball
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Analysis of Wage Discrimination in Major League Baseball
Introduction
Baseball has become one of the most popular sports in the United States. It became a professional sport since 1960s when the increasing victory led to recruit better players despite their ethnicities. However, since then the issue of unequal salaries among players arose. Many people believe that racial inequality is present in the baseball league. Even in this highly integrated labor market, the minority (non-white) might receive lower salaries than white players. In response to the argument of discrimination in payroll, many researchers have tried to examine the hypothesis of unequal treatment toward black baseball players. However, the result of those studies did not come to the same conclusions. In the early 1970s Anthony H. Pascal and Leonard Rapping and Gerald W. Scully, using the 1968-69 major league baseball players, arrived at the conclusion that salaries are independent of races. In contrast, Scully found racial salary discrimination existed in baseball. The difference arose because of the various methods used to estimate the effect of races on salaries. One model uses the wage differential from a single linear regression. The other model is based on the average salary of two separate salary model of white and nonwhite players.
In this paper, we will present a single linear regression to estimate whether or not there is discrimination among baseball players. The estimates that will be reported from this paper will provide crucial information for the continuing debate on the effect of race on the inequality of labor services in professional sports markets. The result of this research is important because the sample data refer to players in a more recent year, 1997, almost thirty years after Scully and Rapping estimated their models. In addition to races, the model used in this study includes other variables that may affect salaries, such as city-size, performances, national league to see what other factors might significantly influence salary.
Data-Model-variables
The study sample consists of 60 players (non pitchers) in 1997 Major League Baseball season. The reason of excluding pitchers is the uniqueness of pitchers role, and the differences in the measures used to assess their performances and those used for other players. The players salaries are collected through the website
Findings
Below is the summary of data. Sixty players are chosen. Of which, 30 are white players and 30 are nonwhite.
Table 1
Summary of information about slugging, years, fielding, white, nl and marketsize.
Variables
Std. Dev.
Total
Salary
Years
Slugging
Fielding
White
Marketsize
Lnsalary
3229311
.5333333
7.216667
397.9322
97.75733
.4833333
14.21035
3022061
.5030977
4.566242
129.6057
1.987797
.5042195
.5039393
1.472707
White Players
_cons
nl
marketsize
fielding
years
slugging
241306.2
1002170
564616.1
-94591.31
8346.857
6759379
1.88e+07
866638.7
986284
199563.1
3418.068
88598.37
Non-White Players
_cons
nl
marketsize
fielding
years
slugging
164740.2
-505254.4
229935.8
-44570.87
13005.91
324884.1