TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Parsons, Christopher A.
AU  - Sulaeman, Johan
AU  - Yates, Michael C.
AU  - Hamermesh, Daniel S.
        TI  - Strike Three: Umpires' Demand for Discrimination
        PY  - 2008/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 3899
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp3899
        AB  - We explore how umpires' racial/ethnic preferences are expressed in their evaluation of Major League Baseball pitchers. Controlling for umpire, pitcher, batter and catcher fixed effects and many other factors, strikes are more likely to be called if the umpire and pitcher match race/ethnicity. This effect only exists where there is little scrutiny of umpires' behavior – in ballparks without computerized systems monitoring umpires' calls, at poorly attended games, and when the called pitch cannot determine the outcome of the at-bat. If a pitcher shares the home-plate umpire's race/ethnicity, he gives up fewer hits, strikes out more batters, and improves his team's chance of winning. The general implication is that standard measures of salary discrimination that adjust for measured productivity may be flawed. We derive the magnitude of the bias generally and apply it to several examples.
        KW  - strategic interactions
KW  - worker evaluation
KW  - wage equations
KW  - economics of sports
        ER  -