Extreme Wages, Performance, and Superstars in a Market for Footballers

We study the determinants of superstar wage effects, asking whether productivity or popularity-based explanations are more appropriate. use longitudinal and performance data for workers (players) firms (teams) from a particular market sports talent: Major League Soccer (MLS) in United States. find evidence that top earners, whose annual salaries mostly not accounted by their past MLS performances, when compared to other footballers, paid because they attract significantly higher stadium attendances thus revenues. There is no residual salary spending teams affects relative football terms, amounts spend on actual talent affect attendances. Taken together, these results suggest explanation effects appropriate among earners this labor market.