An Examination of Customer Racial Discrimination in the Market for Baseball Memorabilia
Posted: 14 Oct 2000
Abstract
This article investigates customer racial discrimination in the market for baseball memorabilia. We examine whether a player's ethnic background influences the price collectors are willing to pay for recently issued rookie baseball cards. Our empirical analysis of all rookie cards issued from 1984 through 1990 examines if price is explained not only by past player performance, but also by other factors such as expected future performance and ethnicity. We raise the possibility that bias could occur because race influences expectations of future performance. However, in contrast to previous studies, our empirical results indicate that price differences are not influenced by race.
JEL Classification: J1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation