Dr. Brian Mills's research focuses on managerial economic issues in sport, largely relating to the market power of sports leagues in the U.S. The sport setting also provides a data-rich context for exploring and testing economic and management theories that apply to other firms and industries. This research can be characterized under three primary branches: 1) Labor & Personnel Economics, 2) Industrial Organization, and 3) Public Policy & Economic Development. He has published extensively on labor and market power in professional sports, and his research has been widely covered in the popular press including the New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and ESPN. He also serves as Associate Editor at the Journal of Sport Management, the top journal in the field.
Dr. Mills was trained in Economics, Statistics, and Sport Management from the University of Michigan and earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology from St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Today Dr. Mills is a Research Fellow for the North American Society for Sport Management and teaches both graduate and undergraduate classes in Sport Economics, Sports Analytics, Sport Finance, Strategy, and Statistics. He has consulted in various settings, including as an expert witness on sports economics and industrial organization.
Ph.D. in Sport Management, University of Michigan, 2012
M.A. in Applied Economics, University of Michigan, 2012
M.A. in Statistics, University of Michigan, 2011
M.A. in Sport Management, University of Michigan, 2008
B.A. in Psychology, St. Mary's College of Maryland, 2006
Mills, B.M.., Bopp, T.. & Turick, R.. (2026). Leadership representation and firm performance: Evidence from collegiate football. Journal of Economics, Race, & Policy, 9, 12–19.
Mills, B.M.., Wells, J.. & Croom, R.. (2026). Leadership teams, cultural representation, and performance in professional soccer. Journal of Sport Management. doi:https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2025-0073.
Flannaga, K.., Mills, B.M.. & Goldstone, R.. (2024). The psychophysics of home plate umpire calls in baseball. Scientific Reports, 14, 2735.
Day, G.., Holden, J. & Mills, B.M.. (2022). Fraud on any market. Indiana Law Journal, 97, 659–706.
Mills, B. (2021). A peculiarity that positions sport management. Journal of Sport Management.
Finegan, D., Mills, B. & Stone, D. (2020). Pulling starters. Journal of Behavioral & Experimental Economics.
Peeters, T., Mills, B., Pennings, E. & Sung, H. (2019). Manager migration, learning-by-hiring, and cultural distance in international soccer. Global Strategy Journal.
Mills, B. & Salaga, S. (2018). A natural experiment for efficient markets: Information quality and influential agents. Journal of Financial Markets, 40, 23–39.
Mills, B. & Winfree, J. (2018). Athlete pay and competitive balance in college athletics. Review of Industrial Organization, 52, 211–229.
Mills, B., Tainsky, S., Green, C. & Leopkey, R. (2018). The ultimatum game in the college football rivalry context. Journal of Sport Management, 32, 11–23.
Sung, H. & Mills, B. (2018). Estimation of game-level attendance in Major League Soccer: Outcome uncertainty and absolute quality considerations. Sport Management Review, 21, 519–532.
Wendling, E. & Mills, B. (2018). Mitigation of relative age effects through targeted policy intervention: A natural experiment from U.S. tennis. Social Science Quarterly, 99, 1496–1509.
Mills, B. (2017). Policy changes in Major League Baseball: Improved agent behavior and ancillary productivity outcomes. Economic Inquiry, 55, 1104–1118.
Mills, B. (2017). Technological innovations in monitoring and evaluation: Evidence of performance impacts among Major League Baseball umpires. Labour Economics, 46, 189–199.
Mills, B. & Winfree, J. (2016). Market power, exclusive rights, and substitution effects in sports. The Antitrust Bulletin, 6, 423–433.
Mills, B. & Rosentraub, M. (2014). The National Hockey League and cross-border fandom: Travel costs, relocation, and international boundaries. Journal of Sports Economics, 15, 497–518.
Mills, B. & Fort, R. (2014). League-level attendance and outcome uncertainty in the NBA, NFL and NHL. Economic Inquiry, 52, 205–218.
