Customer Racial Discrimination in the Market for Memorabilia: The Case of Baseball

Because consumer discrimination can reduce productivity, it is often impossible to tell whether differential productivity is the effect of discrimination or of differential ability. Detailed data for the sports labor market make it possible to separate consumer discrimination from ability. We use a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Quarterly journal of economics 1990-08, Vol.105 (3), p.575-595
Main Authors: Nardinelli, Clark, Simon, Curtis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Baseball
Baseball card collecting
Baseball statistics
Commodities
Consumer behavior
Consumer economics
Discrimination
Economic models
Effects
Employment discrimination
Equal pay
Gender discrimination
Hispanics
Labor markets
Member
Professional baseball
Professional sports
Race
Racial discrimination
Regression analysis
Studies
Teams
Trading cards
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:Because consumer discrimination can reduce productivity, it is often impossible to tell whether differential productivity is the effect of discrimination or of differential ability. Detailed data for the sports labor market make it possible to separate consumer discrimination from ability. We use a unique approach to determine whether the entertainment value of baseball players is related to their race: we examine whether race directly affects the value of a player in the market for baseball cards. In contrast to studies that use salaries, there is no room for owner or coworker discrimination. Our evidence supports the hypothesis of consumer discrimination.
ISSN:0033-5533
1531-4650
DOI:10.2307/2937891