Albion College

About: Albion College is a education organization based out in Albion, Michigan, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Higher education. The organization has 485 authors who have published 754 publications receiving 20907 citations.

An Economic Evaluation of the Moneyball Hypothesis

Abstract: In his 2003 book Moneyball, financial reporter Michael Lewis made a striking claim: the valuation of skills in the market for baseball players was grossly inefficient. The discrepancy was so large that when the Oakland Athletics hired an unlikely management group consisting of Billy Beane, a former player with mediocre talent, and two quantitative analysts, the team was able to exploit this inefficiency and outproduce most of the competition, while operating on a shoestring budget. The publication of Moneyball triggered a firestorm of criticism from baseball insiders (Lewis, 2004), and it raised the eyebrows of many economists as well. Basic price theory implies a tight correspondence between pay and productivity when markets are competitive and rich in information, as would seem to be the case in baseball. The market for baseball players receives daily attention from the print and broadcast media, along with periodic in-depth analysis from lifelong baseball experts and academic economists. Indeed, a case can be made that more is known about pay and quantified performance in this market than in any other labor market in the American economy. In this paper, we test the central portion of Lewis’s (2003) argument with elementary econometric tools and confirm his claims. In particular, we find that hitters’ salaries during this period did not accurately reflect the contribution of various batting skills to winning games. This inefficiency was sufficiently large that knowledge of its existence, and the ability to exploit it, enabled the Oakland Athletics to gain a substantial advantage over their competition. Further, we find

Materialism and Affect: The Role of Self-Presentational Concerns

Abstract: Previous research has established an inverse relationship between materialism and psychological well-being (e.g., Belk, 1984). To test the hypothesis that the link between materialism and affect is due in part to an individual's level of self-presentational concern, American college students ( N = 297) completed the Richins and Dawson (1992) measure of materialism, the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE), the Social (SAI) and Personal (PAI) Identity Subscales of the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire, and the Brief Measures of Positive and Negative Affect Scales. Results indicated that the significant relationship between materialism and negative affect disappeared when FNE or SAI were statistically controlled, and that the significant relationship between materialism and positive affect disappeared when FNE was statistically controlled. Results are discussed in relation to other research that has explored reasons why materialism is related to lower level of psychological well-being.

An Economic Evaluation of the Moneyball Hypothesis

Abstract: Michael Lewis's book, Moneyball, is the story of an innovative manager who exploits an inefficiency in baseball's labor market over a prolonged period of time. We evaluate this claim by applying standard econometric procedures to data on player productivity and compensation from 1999 to 2004. These methods support Lewis's argument that the valuation of different skills was inefficient in the early part of this period, and that this was profitably exploited by managers with the ability to generate and interpret statistical knowledge. This knowledge became increasingly dispersed across baseball teams during this period. Consistent with Lewis's story and economic reasoning, the spread of this knowledge is associated with the market correcting the original mis-pricing.

College Virgins: How Men and Women Perceive Their Sexual Status

Abstract: Whereas the sexual lives of college students have been the focus of many research studies, there is very little research on those young adults who have chosen to remain virgins. In this study, 97 virgin men and 192 virgin women from a Midwestern U.S. university were surveyed about the reasons they were virgins, their affective reactions to their virginity status, and other aspects of their virginity (e.g., the social pressure they received to remain a virgin vs. to become sexually active). As hypothesized, women rated more reasons for virginity (particularly interpersonal ones) as important and had more positive reactions (were more proud and happy and less embarrassed and guilty) about being a virgin than did men. Women reported more social pressure than did men to remain a virgin, and men were more likely than women to expect to become a nonvirgin in the near future. Associations among the reasons, affective reactions, and other aspects of virginity were examined for men versus women. Because data were ...