IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v24y2023i8p1055-1075.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of Career Exits and Career Breaks in Women's Professional Basketball

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Jepsen

Abstract

Although economists regularly use sports to study labor-market outcomes, nearly all sports-related studies focus on men. Instead, this paper looks at career breaks and career exits for women's basketball, with a focus on race/ethnicity and country of birth. Data are from the start of the Women's National Basketball Association in 1997 through the 2019 season. White players and foreign-born players have higher likelihoods of leaving the league, conditional on player demographics and productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Jepsen, 2023. "Determinants of Career Exits and Career Breaks in Women's Professional Basketball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(8), pages 1055-1075, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:24:y:2023:i:8:p:1055-1075
    DOI: 10.1177/15270025231190647
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15270025231190647
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/15270025231190647?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sigal Alon & Marta Tienda, 2005. "Job Mobility and Early Career Wage Growth of White, African‐American, and Hispanic Women," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(s1), pages 1196-1217, December.
    2. Omer Gokcekus & Adam Godet & Heather Ramsey, 2010. "Are women more predictable than men?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 641-645.
    3. Jonathan D. Fisher & Christina A. Houseworth, 2017. "The Widening Black-White Wage Gap among Women," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 31(3), pages 288-308, September.
    4. Erick Eschker & Stephen Perez & Mark Siegler, 2004. "The NBA and the influx of international basketball players," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(10), pages 1009-1020.
    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. Peter A. Groothuis & James Richard Hill, 2013. "Pay Discrimination, Exit Discrimination or Both? Another Look at an Old Issue Using NBA Data," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(2), pages 171-185, April.
    7. 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.
    8. Mark C. Berger & Dan A. Black, 1998. "The Duration Of Medicaid Spells: An Analysis Using Flow And Stock Samples," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(4), pages 667-675, November.
    9. Hoang, Ha & Rascher, Dan, 1999. "The NBA, Exit Discrimination, and Career Earnings," MPRA Paper 3542, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Brian Hill, 2021. "Tournament incentives and performance: Evidence from the WNBA," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 882-900, October.
    11. Rodney J. Paul & Andrew P. Weinbach, 2014. "Market Efficiency and Behavioral Biases in the WNBA Betting Market," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-10, April.
    12. Hisahiro Naito & Yu Takagi, 2017. "Is racial salary discrimination disappearing in the NBA? evidence from data during 1985–2015," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 651-669, September.
    13. Mark Gius & Donn Johnson, 1998. "An empirical investigation of wage discrimination in professional basketball," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(11), pages 703-705.
    14. 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.
    15. Candon Johnson & Eduardo Minuci, 2020. "Wage discrimination in the NBA: Evidence using free agent signings," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(2), pages 517-539, October.
    16. Olugbenga Ajilore, 2014. "Do white NBA players suffer from reverse discrimination?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(1), pages 558-566.
    17. Brad R. Humphreys, 2000. "Equal Pay on the Hardwood: The Earnings Gap Between Male and Female NCAA Division I Basketball Coaches," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(3), pages 299-307, August.
    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. Johnny Ducking & Peter A. Groothuis, 2023. "Positional Segregation and Career Length in Major League Baseball in the 1990s," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 149-159, September.
    2. Peter A. Groothuis & James Richard Hill, 2018. "Career Duration in the NBA," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(6), pages 873-883, August.
    3. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2009. "The Economics of Discrimination: Evidence from Basketball," NCER Working Paper Series 40, National Centre for Econometric Research.
    4. Candon Johnson & Eduardo Minuci, 2020. "Wage discrimination in the NBA: Evidence using free agent signings," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(2), pages 517-539, October.
    5. Hisahiro Naito & Yu Takagi, 2017. "Is there A Positive Association between Increasing Salary Discrimination in the NBA and Unshrinking Racial Income Gap of White and Black Citizens ?," Tsukuba Economics Working Papers 2017-001, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
    6. 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.
    7. Scott Tainsky & Brian M. Mills & Jason A. Winfree, 2015. "Further Examination of Potential Discrimination Among MLB Umpires," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(4), pages 353-374, May.
    8. Peter A. Groothuis & James Richard Hill, 2008. "Exit Discrimination in Major League Baseball: 1990–2004," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(2), pages 574-590, August.
    9. Peter A. Groothuis & James Richard Hill, 2013. "Pay Discrimination, Exit Discrimination or Both? Another Look at an Old Issue Using NBA Data," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(2), pages 171-185, April.
    10. Daniel LaFave & Randy Nelson & Michael Doherty, 2018. "Race and Retention in a Competitive Labor Market," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(3), pages 417-451, April.
    11. 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.
    12. Shao, Wen-Chao & Zhang, Han & Chou, Li-Chen & Ye, Xi-Xi, 2023. "Comparing athletes’ mastery of salary information before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the national basketball association," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    13. Craig A. Depken & Johnny Ducking & Peter A. Groothuis, 2017. "Career duration in the NHL: pushing and pulling on Europeans?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(59), pages 5923-5934, December.
    14. Bernd Frick & Friedrich Scheel, 2016. "Fly Like an Eagle," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(8), pages 813-831, December.
    15. Salaga, Steven & Juravich, Matthew, 2020. "National Football League head coach race, performance, retention, and dismissal," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 978-991.
    16. James R. Hill & Nicholas A. Jolly, 2012. "Salary Distribution and Collective Bargaining Agreements: A Case Study of the NBA," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 342-363, April.
    17. Igan, Deniz & Pinheiro, Marcelo & Smith, John, 2015. "A study of a market anomaly: “White Men Can’t Jump”, but would you bet on it?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 13-25.
    18. Johnny Ducking & Peter A. Groothuis & James Richard Hill, 2017. "Compensation Discrimination: an Analysis of Linebackers, Defensive Linemen, and Defensive Backs in the National Football League," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 251-260, December.
    19. Johnny Ducking & Peter A. Groothuis & James Richard Hill, 2014. "Minimum Pay Scale and Career Length in the NBA," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 617-635, October.
    20. Peter A. Groothuis & James Richard Hill, 2015. "Exit Discrimination in the NBA. Is there a Bias against Foreigners?," Working Papers 15-10, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University, revised 2015.

    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:24:y:2023:i:8:p:1055-1075. 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.