Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data

Paul Dolan, Georgios Kavetsos, Christian Krekel, Dimitris Mavridis, Robert Metcalfe (), Claudia Senik (), Stefan Szymanski and Nicolas Ziebarth ()

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Hosting the Olympic Games costs billions of taxpayer dollars. Following a quasi-experimental setting, this paper assesses the intangible impact of the London 2012 Olympics, using a novel panel of 26,000 residents in London, Paris, and Berlin during the summers of 2011, 2012, and 2013. We show that hosting the Olympics increases subjective well-being of the host city's residents during the event, particularly around the times of the opening and closing ceremonies. However, we do not find much evidence for legacy effects. Estimating residents' implicit willingness-to-pay for the event, we do not find that it was worth it for London alone, but a modest wellbeing impact on the rest of the country would make hosting worth the costs.

Keywords: subjective well-being; life satisfaction; happiness; intangible effects; Olympic Games; sport events; quasi-natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 I31 I38 L83 Z20 Z28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-hap and nep-spo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

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Journal Article: Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data (2019)
Working Paper: Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data (2019)
Working Paper: Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data (2019)
Working Paper: Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data (2019)
Working Paper: Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data (2019)
Working Paper: Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data (2019)
Working Paper: Quantifying the Intangible Impact of the Olympics Using Subjective Well-Being Data (2019)
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