We address potential racial bias by Major League Baseball umpires with respect to ball–strike calls. We offer a number of econometric specifications to test the robustness of the results, adding the role of implicit and explicit monitoring as well as pitch location. Our analysis shows mixed results regarding the matching of umpire and pitcher race. We conclude that evidence of own-race bias is sensitive to specification and methodology. How results can differ based on different data sets, specifications, time periods, and race classifications are discussed.
BeckerG. (1971). The economics of discrimination (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
2.
BirnbaumP. (2008). Is there really racism among MLB umpires? [Power Point file]. Retrieved fromwww.philbirnbaum.com
3.
BodvarssonO. B.BrastowR. T. (1999). A test of employer discrimination in the NBA. Contemporary Economic Policy, 17, 243–255.
4.
BrownE.SpiroR.KeenanD. (1988). Wage and nonwage discrimination in professional basketball: Do fans affect it?American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 50, 333–345.
5.
BurdekinR. C. K.HossfieldR. T.SmithJ. K. (2005). Are NBA fans becoming indifferent to race? Evidence from the 1990s. Journal of Sports Economics, 6, 144–159.
6.
BurdekinR. C. K.IdsonT. L. (1991). Customer preferences, attendance and the racial structure of professional basketball teams. Applied Economics, 23, 179–186.
7.
CourneyaK. S.CarronA. V. (1992). The home advantage in sport competitions: A literature review. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 14, 13–27.
8.
DebrockL.HendricksW. E.KoenkerR. (2003). Uncertainty, hiring and subsequent performance: The NFL draft. Journal of Labor Economics, 21, 857–886.
9.
DeyM. S. (1997). Racial differences in national basketball association players’ salaries: A new look. The American Economist, 41, 84–90.
10.
FortR.GillA. (2000). Race and ethnicity assessment in baseball card markets. Journal of Sports Economics, 1, 21–38.
11.
FortR. D.LeeY. H.BerriD. (2008). Race, technical efficiency, and retention: The case of NBA coaches. International Journal of Sport Finance, 3, 84–97.
12.
GaricanoL.Palacios-HuertaP.PrendergastC. (2005). Favoritism under social pressure. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 87, 208–216.
13.
GroothuisP. A.HillJ. R. (2004). Exit discrimination in the NBA: A duration analysis of career length. Economic Inquiry, 42, 341–349.
14.
GroothuisP. A.HillJ. R. (2013). Pay discrimination, exit discrimination or both?: Another look at an old issue using NBA data. Journal of Sports Economics, 14, 171–185. doi:10.1177/1527002511418515
15.
HamiltonB. H. (1997). Racial discrimination and professional basketball salaries in the 1990s. Applied Economics, 29, 287–296.
16.
HillJ. R. (2004). Pay discrimination in the NBA revisited. Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, 43, 81–92.
17.
HoangH.RascherD. (1999). The NBA, exit discrimination, and career earnings. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 38, 69–91.
18.
JonesJ. C. H.WalshW. D. (1988). Salary determination in the national hockey league: The effects of skills, franchise characteristics, and discrimination. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 41, 592–604.
19.
KahnL. M. (1992). The effects of race on professional football players’ compensation. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 45, 295–310.
20.
KahnL. M.ShahM. (2005). Race, compensation and contract length in the NBA: 2001-2002. Industrial Relations, 44, 444–457.
21.
KahnL. M.ShererP. D. (1988). Differences in professional basketball players’ compensation. Journal of Labor Economics, 6, 40–61.
22.
KochJ.Vander HillC. W. (1988). Is there discrimination in the “Black Man’s game?”Social Science Quarterly, 69, 83–94.
23.
LongleyN. (2000). The underrepresentation of French Canadians on English Canadian NHL teams: Evidence from 1943 to 1998. Journal of Sports Economics, 1, 236–256.
24.
LongleyN. (2003). Measuring employer-based discrimination versus customer-based discrimination: The case of french Canadians in the national hockey league. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 62, 365–381.
NeaveN.WolfsonS. (2003). Testosterone, territoriality, and the home advantage. Physiology and Behaviour, 78, 269–275.
27.
NevillA. M.NewellS. M.GaleS. (1996). Factors associated with home advantage in English and scottish soccer matches. Journal of Sports Sciences, 14, 181–186.
28.
ParsonsC. A.SulaemanJ.YatesM. C.HamermeshD. S. (2011). Strike three: Discrimination, incentives, and evaluation. American economic review, 101, 1410–1435.
29.
PriceJ.WolfersJ. (2010). Racial discrimination among NBA referees. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125, 1859–1887.
30.
SchroffelJ. L.MageeC. S. P. (2012). Own-race bias among NBA coaches. Journal of Sports Economics, 13, 130–151. doi:10.1177/1527002511402758
31.
SutterM.KocherM. G. (2004). Favoritism of agents: The case of referees’ home bias. Journal of Economic Psychology, 25, 461–469.
32.
WoodS. N. (2000). Modelling and smoothing parameter estimation with multiple quadratic penalties. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (B), 62, 413–428.
33.
WoodS. N. (2003). Thin-plate regression splines. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (B), 65, 95–114.
34.
WoodS. N. (2004). Stable and efficient multiple smoothing parameter estimation for generalized additive models. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 99, 673–686.
35.
WoodS. N. (2011). Fast stable restricted maximum likelihood and marginal likelihood estimation of semiparametric generalized linear models. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (B), 73, 3–36.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
