Professional athletes are both highly paid and highly mobile workers. Previous research has shown that athletes respond to state income taxes differentials through bargaining and migration. If athletes are compensated for state tax burden, teams located in higher taxed states may be at a competitive disadvantage. I examine the effect of state income taxes on professional sports team performance. Using within-team variation in state top marginal income tax rates, I show that, only after the availability of free agency, did state income tax increases lower team winning percentages. I find that for each percentage point increase in state income tax rates, team winning declines by 0.70 percentage points.

职业运动员既是高薪又是流动性强的工作者。先前的研究表明，运动员通过讨价还价和移民来应对州所得税差异。如果运动员获得州税负担补偿，位于税收较高州的球队可能处于竞争劣势。我研究了州所得税对职业运动队表现的影响。使用州最高边际所得税率的团队内部变化，我表明，只有在自由球员可用之后，州所得税才会增加降低团队获胜率。我发现，州所得税率每增加一个百分点，球队获胜率就会下降 0.70 个百分点。