EI Feature: "Temporary employment and the protection of investments in human capital..."
Date postedOctober 10, 2025
As we make our way through the MLB post season, the EI Editors invite you to browse the October 2025 issue including this featured article:
"Temporary employment and the protection of investments in human capital: Examining the Major League Baseball player market"
- Richard J. Paulsen, Department of Sports Management, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
ABSTRACT: When employees are employed in a temporary capacity, employers should be less willing to invest in their human capital relative to permanent employees. This study uses the context of injury management by Major League Baseball teams to test for differential investment in the protection of player human capital. Injury management is inherently uncertain as medical professionals can give differing opinions, so teams may be able to influence recovery times. Using a panel dataset and estimating player fixed-effects regressions, players are found to miss significantly fewer games to injury when employed on a temporary basis.
First published: 02 September 2025