Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/46007 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5225
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A detailed longitudinal dataset is assembled containing annual performance and biographical data for every player over the entire history of professional major league baseball. The data are then aggregated to the team level for the period 1920-2009 in order to test whether teams built on a more even distribution of observed talent perform better than those teams with a mixture of highly able and less able players. The dependent variable used in the regressions is the percentage of games a team wins each season. We find that conditioning on average player ability, dispersion of both batting and pitching talent displays an optimal degree of inequality, in that teams with too high or too low a spread in player ability perform worse than teams with a more balanced distribution of offensive and defensive talent. These findings have potentially important applications both inside and outside of the sporting world.
Subjects: 
skill dispersion
baseball
firm performance
JEL: 
L23
L25
L83
M51
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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