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Nationality Discrimination in Soccer. Empirical Findings from MLS Data

Student: Chuguevskiy Georgiy

Supervisor: Sergey Solntsev

Faculty: Faculty of Economic Sciences

Educational Programme: Economics (Bachelor)

Final Grade: 9

Year of Graduation: 2020

This work presents the consequences of over-fighting ethnic discrimination in the United States, which is expressed in infringement of the local population. Based on the data on the MLS football league salary market, I answer important questions: are foreign players overpaid and is it a result of discrimination or rational economic behavior? In this study, I find evidence of discrimination against local football players whose salaries are lower than foreigners by an average of 34%. Foreign players have better performance indicators, but they explain only a small part of such a big difference between salaries of two groups. Neither coaches nor fans are connected with this trend, which means that the most likely source of discrimination is team management. Also, I found the evidence that discrimination was most developed among less capable players, which means entry barriers and lack of mobility are also characteristic of the MLS labor market.

Full text (added May 14, 2020)

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