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Strike Three: Umpires' Demand for Discrimination

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Author Info
Christopher A. Parsons
Johan Sulaeman
Michael C. Yates
Daniel S. Hamermesh

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Abstract

We explore umpires' racial/ethnic preferences in the evaluation of Major League Baseball pitchers. Controlling for umpire, pitcher, batter and catcher fixed effects and many other factors, strikes are more likely to be called if the umpire and pitcher match race/ethnicity. This effect only exists where there is little scrutiny of umpires' behavior -- in ballparks without computerized systems monitoring umpires' calls, at poorly attended games, and when the called pitch cannot determine the outcome of the at-bat. If a pitcher shares the home-plate umpire's race/ethnicity, he gives up fewer runs per game and improves his team's chance of winning. The results suggest that standard measures of salary discrimination that adjust for measured productivity may generally be flawed. We derive the magnitude of the bias generally and apply it to several examples.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13665.

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Date of creation: Nov 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13665

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Findlay, David W & Reid, Clifford E, 1997. "Voting Behavior, Discrimination and the National Baseball Hall of Fame," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 562-78, July.
  2. Joseph Price & Justin Wolfers, 2007. "Racial Discrimination Among NBA Referees," IZA Discussion Papers 2863, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  3. 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 873-81, July/Aug.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Scully, Gerald W, 1974. "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 915-30, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Michael A. Stoll & Steven Raphael & Harry J. Holzer, 2004. "Black job applicants and the hiring officer's race," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 57(2), pages 267-287, January.
  6. Lawrence M. Kahn, 1991. "Discrimination in professional sports: A survey of the literature," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 44(3), pages 395-418, April.
  7. Luis Garicano & Ignacio Palacios-Huerta & Canice Prendergast, 2005. "Favoritism Under Social Pressure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 208-216, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Eric Zitzewitz, 2006. "Nationalism in Winter Sports Judging and Its Lessons for Organizational Decision Making," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 15(1), pages 67-99, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Nardinelli, Clark & Simon, Curtis, 1990. "Customer Racial Discrimination in the Market for Memorabilia: The Case of Baseball," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(3), pages 575-95, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Tim Larsen & Joe Price & Justin Wolfers, 2008. "Racial Bias in the NBA: Implications in Betting Markets," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 4(2), pages 7. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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