Exit discrimination in the NBA: a duration analysis of career length

Economic Inquiry, April, 2004 by Peter A. Groothuis, J. Richard Hill

The lack of exit discrimination found in our study indicates that winning games supersedes even the tastes of fans' racial preferences. These results seem to be a resounding affirmation of Becket's theoretical implications. Outside the realm of professional sports, where objective statistics of employee performance and firm performance are not so readily available, the implications for Becker's model of the findings of unequal promotional attainment and on-the-job training by minorities is unclear. Our results, however, suggest that if competition is present performance on the job may now supersede race as the prime determinant of employee retention.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

We use a panel study of annual NBA data to examine the exit discrimination on career length in the NBA. We find that performance variables are important determinants in career length where more productive players have longer careers. This result suggests that team owners in the pursuit of championships and profits keep talented players. In our analysis, we also find that big men are predicted to have longer careers than small men. We do not, however, find exit discrimination in the NBA in the 1990s. This result is inconsistent with results from data in the past that has found exit discrimination but is consistent with more recent findings that have measured wage discrimination in sports in the 1990s.