Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/265694 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15473
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
discrimination
race
NFL
JEL: 
J15
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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