Overpayment and Reservation Salary in the Nippon Professional Baseball League

Abstract

This study examines predictions based on the job search model and estimates the overpayment within the labor market in Nippon Professional Baseball using stochastic frontier analysis. The empirical results indicate that more experienced players demand a higher reservation salary, and the effect increases at a decreasing rate. In the overpayment analysis, it is found that international players receive preferential labor market treatment. Moreover, from the analysis of team-level overpayments, payment wastage in terms of a team’s overpayment in a resource-abundant team within a large market (e.g., the Tokyo Giants) results in that team not being the most successful.