The Effects of Race on Professional Football Players' Compensation

Abstract

Using data on 1,363 NFL players from the 1989 season, the author examines the issue of racial discrimination in professional football. He finds that the difference between white and black players' earnings, with controls for performance and other variables, is small (at most, 4%, favoring whites) and, in most equations, not significantly different from zero. Another finding, however, is that the salaries of white and nonwhite players vary positively with the percentages of whites and nonwhites, respectively, in the metropolitan area in which the team is based —suggesting that some football fans prefer to watch players of their own race, and team owners are willing to pay more to players who, because of their race, will attract a larger audience and bring in greater revenue.