Who Integrated Major League Baseball Faster

Abstract

In this article, the authors investigate the process of racial integration in Major League Baseball, critiquing the empirical approach used by Goff, McCormick, and Tollison (GMT; 2002). GMT claim to find evidence suggesting that winners integrated fastest. This study shows that when their empirical model is properly specified, the results do not support that conclusion. Several alternative tests are employed and the evidence is inconclusive—if anything, there is some weak support for the hypothesis that losers integrate faster.