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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Salary Inequality In The Nba: Changing Returns To Skill Or Wider Skill Distributions?, Jonah F. Breslow Jan 2017

Salary Inequality In The Nba: Changing Returns To Skill Or Wider Skill Distributions?, Jonah F. Breslow

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper, I examine trends in salary inequality from the 1985-86 NBA season to the 2015-16 NBA season. Income and wealth inequality have been extremely important issues recently, which motivated me to analyze inequality in the NBA. I investigated if salary inequality trends in the NBA can be explained by either returns to skill or widening skill distributions. I used Pareto exponents to measure inequality levels and tested to see if the levels changed over the sample. Then, I estimated league-wide returns to skill. I found that returns to skill have not significantly changed, but variance in skill has …


Don’T Worry, College Doesn’T Make You Successful In The Nba, Cameron E. Van Jan 2017

Don’T Worry, College Doesn’T Make You Successful In The Nba, Cameron E. Van

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the value of attending college to Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball players in terms of future success in the NBA. Future success is measured by both salary and minutes played per game. A dataset of 660 athletes from the 2006 through 2016 drafts was collected from Basketball-Reference. An empirical model is estimated using this data in order to identify the determinant factors in a player’s success in the NBA. It is found that college is not a determinant of success in the NBA.


Revenue Incentives And Referee Propensity To Make Foul Calls In The Nba Finals, Daniel Fallon-Cyr Jan 2017

Revenue Incentives And Referee Propensity To Make Foul Calls In The Nba Finals, Daniel Fallon-Cyr

CMC Senior Theses

In this study I examine foul calls by NBA referees alongside the difference in aggressiveness of twelve NBA basketball teams as they compete for the Championship Title. I aim to identify referee biases that increase the likelihood of the NBA Finals ending in a later game due to league revenue incentives. My data consists of 91 individual NBA Finals games played between the 2001 and 2016 NBA Finals. After controlling for changes in play as well as the difference in aggressiveness, I find that NBA referee’s foul calls are more dependent on a call on the opposing team in situations …