Integration of North and South American Players in Japan's Professional Baseball Leagues

Sumner LaCroix () and Akihiko Kawaura
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Sumner LaCroix: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Sumner Jonathan La Croix

No 201114, Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics

Abstract: Teams in Japan’s two professional baseball leagues began to add foreign players to their rosters in the early 1950s, with the average number of foreign players per team reaching 5.79 in 2004. One reason for their increased use of foreign players was that foreign hitters substantially outperformed Japanese hitters. We show that the pace of team integration with African-American, Latino, and Caucasian players varied substantially across teams, a pattern also observed in North American professional baseball leagues. Using team data for the 1958-2004 seasons, econometric analysis shows that good teams that experienced a poor season played foreign players more frequently in the next season’s games.

Keywords: Baseball; Japan; integration; NPB; sports; team (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J71 L83 N35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2011-10-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-spo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_11-14.pdf First version, 2011 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: INTEGRATION OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICAN PLAYERS IN JAPAN'S PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUES (2016)
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