Note: This is re-posted from The Sports Economist:
For Martin Luther King Day, Gregory Mankiw has published an excerpt from his textbook at his blog. The excerpt details research on the extent of discrimination in the NBA. Unfortunately, the latest study Mankiw lists comes from 1990.
Last year The Handbook of Sports Economics Research (edited by John Fizel) was published. For this book I was asked to review the literature on the NBA, which included a discussion of the many studies of discrimination in the sport. By my count, since 1990, 17 different studies have been published on this subject. In other words, the vast majority of the research in this area has been published since 1990.
For those interested in a quick summary, HERE is a table that summarizes the results from the studies that have looked at salary discrimination in the NBA. And HERE is a table that summarizes the studies that have looked at customer and hiring discrimination. And HERE are the citations of the twenty studies I reviewed.
What lesson do these studies teach? Here is how I summarized the literature:
What have has been learned from the study of racial discrimination in the NBA? The results are mixed. Recent work indicates little salary discrimination, ambiguous hiring discrimination, and probably some customer discrimination. Discrimination in all areas appears to be diminishing over time. One should be cautious, though, in comparing results. Because each new study examines new data and new methods (if it hopes to be published), comparisons are often between apples and oranges. More studies should consider taking the approach offered by Jenkins (1996) and compare data from both the 1980s and 1990s and now the 2000s with the same methodology. When such a practice becomes more common, our knowledge of how racial attitudes have changed over time will be improved.
In sum, there has been a fair amount of research in this area. But as so often is the case, more needs to be done.
Wages of Wins Journal 
anon
January 16, 2007
In case you don’t know already, new (more robust?), critique of your book online:
http://freedarko.blogspot.com/2007/01/dave-berris-dismal-science.html
dberri
January 16, 2007
anon,
Quick comment on the freedarko review. I think this quote captures the approach taken:”Everyone seems to agree that the book is flawed, but no one can definitively say why.”
Not sure how freedarko is defining “everyone”, but if we use the standard definition of the term we can see that is not true. More importantly, good analysis does not start with the conclusion and then work back to the evidence. The few critics we have seem to consistently start with the conclusion that we are wrong, and then try and figure out why that must be the case. Of course that approach is exactly backwards.
Silverbird5000
January 16, 2007
Just fyi: the “everyone” in that quote refers to the critics enumerated in the preceding sentence (Hollinger, Kauffman, Rosenbaum), not, you know, humankind.
Also, if you read past the first paragraph, you’ll find that unlike the aforementioned analysts, my critique does not proceed from a ‘laugh test’ conclusion, but rather from the theoretical logic of imperfect information models.
Derrick
January 16, 2007
I read Berri as one perspective with some ideas and tools, a resource to sharpen my own thinking. Same for Oliver, Hollinger, Rosenbaum, etc. What they present isn’t complete or perfect either- I can find a number of statements they’ve said that I dont agree with 100%. Use as much as you want. I use some of each guided by my own research, observation and judgments. GMs and coaches vary, so will the various pundits and of course fans.
Ci-Sun
December 8, 2010
I think is common among non real basketball fans. I mean, if you are a real fan of the sport why would you care who is playing? I’m white but Michael Jordan is the best. In basketball they’re not racist but bandwagoners.
V
January 30, 2011
If there’s not a lot of White players ,it’s just because they ‘re bad.I’m talking about W.A.S.P.S.A lot of White players are often from Eastern Europe.And the’re good.I read that a man wanted to found an NBA league…an extreme national league.Could KKK play Basketball?
If the majority is Khemit in NBA,it’s because of discrimination committed by White people.No jobs,no access for schools,poverty…for our brothers.That’s why they took their possibilities on sport:boxing,athletics,basketball.And now those fuckin’White animals complaint by saying why only Blacks?They ‘re nothing but racists.That’s all.