| dc.description.abstract | In recent years, the globalization of professional baseball has induced the influx of foreign players in various countries. Do foreign players receive salaries which are commensurate with their performance or there is a wage discrimination (premium) for foreign players? This thesis adopts a player-level data, containing 4340 pitcher and 4539 field player observations, from Nippon Professional Baseball League for the period 2000-2017 to implement empirical estimations. Using both techniques of the pooled OLS and the Random-Effect of panel data model, I investigate whether there is salary discrimination (premium) for foreign players, compared to local players. Furthermore, I explore whether the phenomenon of wage discrimination (remuneration) is less likely to exist for Asian players due to the geographical proximity.
The empirical results show that foreign players, both pitchers and batters, are paid much higher than their local counterparts after controlling for performance, personal characteristics, and team characteristics, suggesting the existence of wage premium due to nationality. This result also supports the hypothesis of the winner curse. Furthermore, I classify foreign players into five groups based on their nationalities, consisting of North America, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and others. The results indicate that the magnitude of salary premium of Asian players is indeed lower than those from North America, Central and South America, and Europe. This finding supports my conjecture that, Asian players are more accurately evaluated by teams due to the geographical proximity, thereby leading to a lower wage premium. | en_US |