We consider three professional sports and examine if there is a disparate return response to free agent signings with small versus big market franchises. After controlling for player ability, contract characteristics, and negotiation conditions, we find evidence of a more pronounced negative small market effect in response to both basketball and baseball signings, and a more pronounced negative big market effect in response to football signings. Our results suggest that differential market size sensitivities are complex, reflecting the influence of factors such as player ability and compensation in ways that are highly nuanced and unique to each league.

我们考虑了三种职业体育项目，并研究了市场规模较小与大型市场特许经营的自由球员签约是否有不同的回报反应。在控制了球员的能力，合同特征和谈判条件之后，我们发现有证据表明，对篮球和棒球的签字都有较小的负面小市场效应，而对足球的签字有较大的负面大市场效应。我们的研究结果表明，不同的市场规模敏感性是复杂的，反映了诸如球员能力和薪酬等因素的影响，这些影响因素是每个联赛都非常细微和独特的。