Graduation Year
Fall 2013
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
Second Department
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE)
Reader 1
Eric Helland
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2013 Benjamin D. Pyle
Abstract
This paper explores the monopsonistic implications of restricting bargaining power through the rookie draft and the concept of countervailing forces. It examines both the legal framework and the empirical outcomes of the court’s policy choices. This paper accomplishes this inquiry by exploiting the fact that players drafted late in the last round tend to be similar to players selected as undrafted free agents in expectation. This allows a natural experiment on the impact of the draft. In order to measure the impact of the draft, this paper examines career outcomes both in terms of compensation and length. I ultimately find little evidence that the draft creates monopsony power, and I provide some evidence suggesting that monopsony power impacts all rookies, as one would expect from an insider-outsider model.
Recommended Citation
Pyle, Benjamin D., "The Law and Economics of Monopsony in the NFL: An Analysis of the NFL Rookie Draft and Countervailing Force" (2013). CMC Senior Theses. 612.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/612
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
