| By: |
Wolfgang Maennig (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg);
Steffen Q. Mueller (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: |
We investigate the relationship between consumer discrimination, racial
matching strategies, and employer discrimination in Major League Baseball
(MLB) from 1985 to 2016. To this end, we assess the extent to which both fan
attendance and team performance respond to changes in teams’ and their local
market areas’ racial compositions. We innovate by using a significantly
enhanced data basis with individual player data that we derive from combining
web scraping and using facial recognition techniques to identify player race
and using County-level Census data instead of Metropolitan Statistical Area
data. We find that fans in both MLB Leagues developed a taste for racial
diversity in the late 1980s; since the 2000s, discrimination starts to
increase again. However, this discrimination is not fully rationalizing the
performance gap across athletes of different race and ethnicity; employer
discrimination is not primarily driven by fans’ racial preferences. |
| Keywords: |
Consumer preferences, Discrimination, Race, Ethnicity, Facial recognition, Ticket sales |
| JEL: |
C5 J1 Z2 |
| Date: |
2021–12–07 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hce:wpaper:069&r= |