ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how economists study and measure discrimination, and presents a few instances when those methods have uncovered evidence of discrimination in the sports industry. It provides the evidence of the presence or absence of discrimination in professional sports and the economic theory of discrimination. The chapter describes the different forms of discrimination and how they affect employment and pay and how gender discrimination differs from racial discrimination. It explores the effects of discrimination, the "unequal treatment of equals" in the sports labor market. The chapter looks specifically at two aspects of discrimination: unequal access to work and unequal pay for equal work. Gary Becker’s theory begins with prejudice in that it rests on the concept of a taste for discrimination. Economics is not the only lens through which one can view discrimination. The chapter describes how employers, employees, and consumers discriminate. The use of group averages to judge individual productivity levels is called statistical discrimination.
