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  3. American Economic Review
  4. March 2002
  5. Racial Integration as an Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Sports Leagues

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Racial Integration as an Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Sports Leagues

  • Brian L. Goff
  • Robert E. McCormick
  • Robert D. Tollison
American Economic Review
vol. 92, no. 1, March 2002
(pp. 16–26)
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Abstract

This paper treats racial integration as an innovation in economic process in which economic entities find it advantageous to utilize potentially more productive inputs previously unavailable due to law, custom, or managerial discretion. Data on the racial integration of Major League Baseball and Atlantic Coast Conference basketball are employed to address this issue. The central question examined is which type of team integrated first—losers or winners? The results strongly support the idea that entrepreneurship trumps competitive rivalry; that is, winning teams led the process of racial integration.

Citation

Goff, Brian, L., Robert E. McCormick, and Robert D. Tollison. 2002. "Racial Integration as an Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Sports Leagues ." American Economic Review, 92 (1): 16–26. DOI: 10.1257/000282802760015586

JEL Classification

  • L83 Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
  • J71 Labor Discrimination
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination