Inside the NBA Bubble: how Black players performed better without fans

Mauro Caselli, Paolo Falco () and Babak Somekh ()
Additional contact information
Paolo Falco: University of Copenhagen
Babak Somekh: Baruch College

Journal of Population Economics, 2024, vol. 37, issue 2, No 4, 20 pages

Abstract: Abstract In the NBA, predominantly Black players play in front of predominantly non-Black fans. Using the “NBA Bubble”, a natural experiment induced by COVID-19, we show that the performance of Black players improved significantly with the absence of fans vis-à-vis White players. This is consistent with Black athletes being negatively affected by racial pressure from mostly non-Black audiences. We control for player, team, and game fixed effects, and dispel alternative mechanisms. Beyond hurting individual players, racial pressure causes significant economic damage to NBA teams by lowering the performance of top athletes and the quality of the game.

Keywords: Discrimination; Harassment; Racism; Performance; Basketball; NBA; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J15 J71 Z22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-024-01021-y

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