Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Monica Das

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between salary dispersion in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and team performance. Team performance will be measured by regular season win totals as well as playoff performance. I hypothesize that teams with higher salary dispersion typically perform better because of superstars in the NBA. Superstars are more effective in basketball than in any other sport because of rules inherent to the game. They also create high salary dispersions on their respective teams, and being superstars, they contribute largely to team success. This study will encompass all 30 NBA teams over the past 20 NBA seasons, 1995-96 to 2015-16.

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