The Short Supply of Tall People: Competitive Imbalance and the National Basketball Association
In recent yearsa wealthof literaturehasbeen offeredexamining theeconomics ofprofes-sionalteamsports.Muchofthisworkfollowsintheneoclassicaltradition,employingthestandard assumptions and focusing primarily on the impact of individual decision mak-ing. The purposeofthiswork istoshowthattheblindersimposedby thenarrow focus ofthe neoclassical tradition on the issue of competitive imbalance may alter the conclu-sions that a broader view suggests.Economists from the time of Adam Smith have trumpeted the virtues of competi-tion. From the perspective of individual firms, though, profits are typically increasedwhen competition is eliminated. However, in professional sports, the elimination ofcompetition effectively removes the primary source of revenue. In the words of WalterNeale, “Pure monopoly is a disaster. [Former heavy-weight champion] Joe Louis wouldhave had no one to fight and therefore no income” (1964, 2).The analysis of Neale extends beyond the obvious case of the boxing champion toany professional sport. As noted by Mohamed El-Hodiri and James Quirk (1971, 1306),