White favoritism by Major League home plate umps lowers minority pitcher performance and pay, baseball study finds
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - 20:30
in Psychology & Sociology
Racial/ethnic bias by home plate umpires lowers the performance of Major League's minority pitchers, diminishing their pay compared to white pitchers, a new study finds. A researcher says analysis of 3.5 million pitches found minorities responded to racial bias by sacrificing performance and throwing safer balls to limit umpires' subjective judgments. The findings matter when measuring the extent of wage discrimination not only in baseball, but also labor markets generally.