Abstract
Research in labor economics has examined many determinants of earnings, including whether an individual is left or right handed. Sports economists have recently shown that in the soccer labor market, being able to kick well with both the left and the right foot is rewarded with a salary premium. This paper examines pay and performance for hockey players that shoot left-handed versus those that shoot right-handed. We find that after controlling for goals and assists, time on the ice, player size and age, and team and season fixed effects, players are paid differently by position, and players playing the same position may be paid differently because they shoot left versus right handed. These results suggest that the hockey player labor market is inefficient.
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Notes
- 1.
Estimates of left-handedness vary from about 10% to 30%, with the proportion apparently on the rise. In the NHL, 65% of players shoot left-handed. In the Elitserien the proportion is 79%.
- 2.
Mason and Foster (2007) discuss the possibilities of “Moneyball on Ice”, that is, that there is some player input into winning hockey that the hockey world incorrectly values, but all the possibilities discussed involve highly complex data collection and analysis. The beauty and power of the Moneyball hypothesis is that the mispriced attribute was easily observable.
- 3.
Little changes if the body mass index and BMI squared replace the height and weight variables.
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Coates, D. (2017). Returns to Handedness in Professional Hockey. In: Frick, B. (eds) Breaking the Ice. Sports Economics, Management and Policy, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67922-8_3
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