This article tests the relationship between earnings and schooling for male footballers of the Portuguese Football League, using data from a questionnaire carried out in the Lisbon area between January and April 2000. The author verifies that the sports market barely compensates the cost of education in accordance with the theory on the economic return on schooling; rather, it rewards talent in accordance with the theory on stardom. This finding is consistent with all currently available international evidence on the issue. Moreover, the article finds a significant positive association between earnings and professional status, union membership, the division in which the club competes, and the player’s performance.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams, W., & Brock, J. W. (1997). Monopoly, monopsony, and vertical collusion: Antitrust policy and professional sports. Antitrust Bulletin, 42(3), 721-747.
2.
Alba-Ramirez, A., & Sán Segundo, M. J. (1995). The returns to education in Spain. Economics of Education Review, 14(2), 155-166.
3.
Angrist, J. D., & Krueger, A. B. (1991, November). Does compulsory school attendance affect schooling and earnings?Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106, 979-1014.
4.
Ashenfleter, O., Harmon, C., & Oosterbeeck, H. (1999). A review of the schooling/earnings relationship, with test for publication bias. Labour Economics, 6, 453-470.
5.
Barros, C. P. (2000). Rendimentos económicos da escolarização dos líderes cooperativos Portugueses [Economic return on schooling of Portuguese cooperative managers.]. Economia e Sociologia, 70, 189-200.
6.
Blackburn, M., & Neumark, D. (1995). Are OLS estimates of the return on schooling biased downward? Another look. Review of Economics and Statistics, 77, 217-229.
7.
Bound, J., Jaegger, D., & Baker, R. (1995, June). Problems with instrumental variables estimation when the correlation between the instruments and the endogenous explanatory variable is weak. Journal of American Statistical Association, 430, 443-450.
8.
Brunello, G., & Miniaci, R. (1999). The economic returns to schooling for Italian men: An evaluation based on instrumental variables. Labour Economics, 6, 509-519.
9.
Butcher, K. F., & Case, A. (1994). The effect of sibling sex composition on women’s education and earnings. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 109, 531-563.
10.
Card, D. (1993). Using geographic variation in college proximity to estimate the return on schooling (Working Paper No. 4483). Cambridge, MA: NBER.
11.
Card, D. (1994). Earnings, schooling and ability revisited (Working Paper No. 4832). Cambridge, MA: NBER.
12.
Griliches, Z., & Mason, W. (1972). Education, income and ability. Journal of Political Economy, 80(2), 74-103.
13.
Harmon, C., & Walker, I. (1995). Estimates of the economic return on schooling for the U.K. American Economic Review, 85, 1278-1286.
14.
Kiker, B. F., & Santos, M. C. (1991). Human capital and earnings in Portugal. Economics of Education Review, 10(3), 187-203.
15.
Levin, J., & Plug, E.J.S. (1999). Instrumenting education and the returns on schooling in the Netherlands. Labour Economics, 6, 521-534.
16.
Mincer, J. (1974). Schooling, experience and earnings. New York: NBER.
17.
Psacharoupolos, G. (1981). Education and the structure of earnings in Portugal. De Economist, 4, 532-545.
18.
Psacharoupolos, G. (1985). Return to education: A further international update and implication. Journal of Human Resources, 20, 583-604.
19.
Quirk, J., & Fort, R. D. (1992). Pay dirt: The business of professional sports. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
Rottemberg, S. (1956). The baseball players’ labour market. Journal of Political Economy, 79, 1302-1319.
21.
Scully, G. W. (1974). Pay and performance in Major League Baseball. American Economic Review, 64, 915-930.
22.
Scully, G. W. (1995). The market structure of sports. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
23.
Shmanske, S. (1992). Human capital formation in professional sports: Evidence from PGA tour. Atlantic Economic Journal, 20, 66-80.
24.
Uusitalo, R. (1999). Return to education in Finland. Labour Economics, 6, 569-580.
25.
Vieira, J.A.C. (1999). Returns to education in Portugal. Labour Economics, 6, 535-541.
