Employment discrimination is studied by examining the performance of baseball players at the highest minor league level in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s. Both Blacks and Hispanics face discrimination in promotion to the major leagues. Blacks faced it in the 1960s and 1970s and still did in the 1990s, but it subsided in years when jobs were created through expansion in the number of teams. Hispanics faced discrimination in the 1960s and 1970s that abated in years of expansion, but there is no significant evidence that they did in the 1990s.
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