Discrimination in a Rank Order Contest. Evidence from the NFL Draft

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines discrimination in the NFL draft. The NFL is a favourable empirical setting to examine the role of skin colour because franchise selectors are required to make rank-order judgements of players based on noisy signals of future productivity. Since wages are tightly related to the rank-order of the draft for the first four years of a player's career, even if discrimination plays only a marginal role in selection, there could be a large discriminatory impact. We observe large unadjusted racial differences in drafting. However, much of the variation is explained by Black and White players selecting into different playing positions. Conditional upon a large set of control variables, including athletic performance at a marque selection event (the NFL combine), we do not find robust evidence of racial discrimination in NFL drafting between 2000 and 2018.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 15473

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
• Subject: discrimination ; race ; NFL

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gregory-Smith, Ian ; Bryson, Alex ; Gomez, Rafael
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/265694
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET