Document Type
Article
Abstract
This paper examines racial salary differences in the National Basketball Association for the 2008-2009 season. Previous studies that used data from the mid-1980s estimated salary premiums of between 16 and 20% for white players whose performance was comparable to black players. A study that used data from the late-1980s to early-1990s showed no significant salary differential between white and black players. Another study, using data from the 1990s, found no racial discrimination in the NBA, but did find a height premium of 7.4%. This paper will update previous studies by using more recent data to analyze salary discrimination in the NBA. I find that nonwhite players earn approximately $83,000 more than white players for the 2008-2009 season. Yet when I control for player productivity and other variables, I find a significant white premium of approximately 24.5%. I also find that customer discrimination is not evident in the NBA for the 2008- 2009 season.
Publication Date
Spring 2009
Journal Title
Major Themes in Economics
Volume
11
Issue
1
First Page
1
Last Page
16
Copyright
©2009 by Major Themes in Economics
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Rehnstrom, Kyle
(2009)
"Racial Salary Discrimination in the NBA: 2008-2009,"
Major Themes in Economics, 11, 1-16.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/mtie/vol11/iss1/3