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Conduct, Performance, And Public Policy Implications Of Baseball's Reentry Draft, Robert C. Dolan, Robert M. Schmidt

Robins School of Business White Paper Series, 1980-2022

This paper examines issues of theory and evidence regarding the link between baseball's reentry draft and league balance. The character of this relationship is important in at least two broad respects. First, from the standpoint of public policy, events which potentially affect competitiveness in professional baseball are especially significant in light of the sport's rather curious antitrust immunity. Second, though the redistributive implications of baseball's labor market have been set forth quite clearly in the economic literature, the conventional prediction that team balance will be unaffected by the reentry draft has not been tested.