Is Racial Salary Discrimination Disappearing in the NBA? Evidence from Data During 1985-2015

62 Pages Posted: 20 Jun 2017

See all articles by Hisahiro Naito

Hisahiro Naito

University of Tsukuba

Yu Takagi

University of Tsukuba

Date Written: November 5, 2016

Abstract

This study re-examines the racial salary gap of National Basketball Association players by constructing a long unbalanced panel covering the 1985-1986 to 2015-2016 seasons. Contrary to the results of previous studies, we find that non-white players are paid equally to white players with similar characteristics in the 1980s and 1990s, but that white players started to be paid about 20 percent more than non-white players in the last 10 years. Our results are robust to all specification checks, such as quantile regressions, controlling sample selection, different contract types, and player nationality. We find that neither employer preference nor income gap of white and black residents explains this increasing salary gap.

Keywords: racial discrimination, NBA, labor markets, salary discrimination

JEL Classification: C25

Suggested Citation

Naito, Hisahiro and Takagi, Yu, Is Racial Salary Discrimination Disappearing in the NBA? Evidence from Data During 1985-2015 (November 5, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2988961 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2988961

Hisahiro Naito (Contact Author)

University of Tsukuba ( email )

Tennodai 1-1-1
Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture
Japan
81-29-853-7431 (Phone)

Yu Takagi

University of Tsukuba

Tsukuba University , Ibaraki Ken
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Ibaraki 3050006
Japan

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