Why Do Economists Study Sports Teams When Looking for Evidence

question 369

Multiple Choice

Why do economists study sports teams when looking for evidence of labor-market discrimination?

• A)because the salaries paid to professional athletes exhibit the superstar phenomenon, which is highly correlated with discrimination
• B)because all four United States professional sports leagues (football, basketball, hockey, and baseball) require discrimination studies every five years
• C)because nonwhites comprise a majority of starters for many professional sports teams
• D)because the wide availability of performance statistics allows economists to control for individual player productivity in ways that are difficult to do for other types of firms

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Definitions:

Genetic Equilibrium

Theoretical state in which an allele’s frequency never changes in a population’s gene pool.

Random Mating

A breeding pattern in which all individuals within a population have an equal opportunity to mate with each other, regardless of their genetic traits.

Directional Selection

A natural selection process by which one extreme phenotype is favored over other phenotypes, causing the allele frequency to shift over time in the direction of that phenotype.

Antibiotic Resistance

The ability of microorganisms to withstand the effects of antibiotics, often due to genetic changes.