Discrimination and subjective player ratings: Evidence from China

Shuoyu Chen, Clay Collins and Ivy Collins

The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 2025, vol. 103, issue C

Abstract: This paper provides an empirical examination of how fans perceive and evaluate athlete performances. Using NBA games during the 2022–23 season, this paper employs a unique dataset from the Chinese app Hupu, which allows users to grade the performances of players for each game. We model, controlling for player characteristics and performance, if ratings respond to game outcomes or a player’s racial characteristics. We use the Classification Algorithm for Skin Color (CASCo) to measure the effect of skin tone on player ratings. We find that controlling for performance, players on winning (losing) teams are rated more positively (negatively), with roughly symmetric effects caused by upsets. Consistently, players with darker skin tones are rated more positively than lighter skin players. The effect appears consistent through a variety of robustness checks.

Keywords: Performance evaluation; Consumer discrimination; National Basketball Association; Awards (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 L83 Z20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1062976925000742

DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2025.102033

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