Consumer racial discrimination: A reassessment of the market for baseball cards

Abstract

Research on the presence of consumer racial discrimination in the baseball labor and memorabilia markets has produced contradictory empirical results. While studies of baseball salaries find no evidence of discrimination, Nardinelli and Simon (1990) and Andersen and La Croix (1991) use data from the baseball card market to show that the price that consumers pay for a card depends on the player's race. In this paper, we reconsider the evidence of consumer discrimination in the baseball card market. Our study improves on previous research by applying more appropriate econometric methods and using a data set in which card supply is constant and incentives for speculative demand are weaker. In contradiction to the aforementioned studies, we find little evidence of racial discrimination. This result proves robust across variable specifications and econometric models.

Customer Discrimination in Restaurants: Dining Frequency Matters

“…This is primarily because for most sports detailed statistics of player performance measuring individual productivity are available, and in many such environments the customer is the sole actor, allowing researchers to attribute any unexplained earnings differentials to customer discrimination. 2 For example, customer racial discrimination has been examined in professional baseball by looking at the market for baseball cards (e.g., Nardinelli and Simon 1990;Andersen and La Croix 1991;McGarrity et al 1999;Scahill 2005), Hall of Fame and all star voting (e.g., Desser et al 1999;Hanssen and Andersen 1999), and game attendance (e.g., Hersch 2010); in professional basketball by looking at the market for basketball cards (e.g., Stone and Warren 1999) and Nielsen ratings of locally televised games (e.g., Kanazawa and Funk 2001); in professional football by looking at the market for football cards (e.g., Primm et al 2010); and, in college basketball by looking at gate revenues (e.g., Brown and Jewell 1994), all with mixed results. This paper examines customer gender discrimination in a novel setting: restaurant tipping.…”

Racial Discrimination and Statistical Discrimination: MLB Rookie Card Values and Performance Uncertainty

“…Subsequent studies have either found similar evidence for discrimination against minorities or have found no evidence of discrimination. Andersen and La Croix (), Gabriel, Johnson, and Stanton (), Fort and Gill (), and Burnett and VanScyoc () all find evidence of racial discrimination; Regoli (), Gabriel, Johnson, and Stanton (), McGarrity, Palmer, and Poitras (), and Burnett and VanScyoc () find no evidence of discrimination.…”

“…Andersen and La Croix () were the first to condition on RCs, finding that RCs are worth significantly more than other cards. McGarrity, Palmer, and Poitras () use 1974 Topps cards to argue evidence for racial discrimination is closely tied with the Tobit modeling choice. They find that when other models are used, the white premium dissipates.…”

Investigating Customer Racial Discrimination in the Secondary Baseball Card Market*

“…So far, the examination of ''customer racial discrimination'' in the secondary sports card market has produced a range of contradictory results. Some scholars have identified a racial bias in the prices of minority athletes' sports cards (Andersen and La Croix 1991; Burnett and VanScyoc 2004;Fort and Gill 2000;Gabriel, Johnson, and Stanton 1999;Nardinelli and Simon 1990), while others have found little or no bias, or report mixed results (Gabriel, Johnson, and Stanton 1995;Hewitt et al 2005;McGarrity, Palmer, and Poitras 1999;Messitte and Powell 1995;Mulligan and Grube 2006;Primm et al 2010;Regoli 1991;Regoli, Primm, and Hewitt 2007;Scahill 2005;Stone and Warren 1999).…”