Baseball and life expectancy: evidence from linked historical data (with Joseph Price and Jacob Van Leeuwen)
We construct a new dataset that links information on professional baseball players with genealogical information about their family members. We find that MLB players live longer than their siblings, an effect that is made larger when comparing with minor league players to account for a possible income effect. The dataset that we’ve constructed provides a unique way to incorporate information from census and vital records to expand the types of measures that we have about professional athletes.
Recommended citation: Price, Joseph, Sebastian Brown, and Jacob Van Leeuwen. "Chapter 8: Baseball and life expectancy: evidence from linked historical data." In Historical Perspectives on Sports Economics: Lessons from the Field. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788977845. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788977845.00015