Using an Empirically Estimated Production Function for Major League Baseball to Examine Worker Disincentives Associated with Multi-Year Contracts

Abstract

This paper uses cross-sectional data from the 1993 Major League Baseball season to derive the production function for the industry. Using that function, the hypothesis that employee productivity drops in response to the job security of a multi-year contract is test ed by comparing the marginal products of players in the year preceding and the year following the signing of a multi-year contract.

I find that the production function for Major League Baseball exhibits increasing returns to scale and, contrary to the popular belief of observers of the sport, hitting is more important to team success than pitching. I also find compelling, statistically significant evidence of worker disincentives associated with multi-year contracts.