Mass Outdoor Events and the Spread of a Virus: English Football and Covid-19

Matthew Yeo (), J Reade and Matthew Yeo ()
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Matthew Yeo: Aston Business School, Aston University
Matthew Yeo: Department of Economics, University of Reading

No em-dp2020-19, Economics Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Reading

Abstract: Mass attendance events are a mainstay of economic and social activity. Whilst the benefits from such interactions are large, they may also facilitate the spread of diseases from person to person. We provide evidence on how mass outdoor gatherings contributed to the spread of Covid-19. We do this by considering how attendance at English football matches in February and March 2020 contributed to Covid-19 cases and deaths in local areas in March and April 2020. The results suggest that an additional match taking place in an area in March increased April Covid deaths in that area by 2 or 3 per 100,000 people. There is also some evidence matches were contributing to the spread of the virus before March. Furthermore, we show that attendance at matches can have this impact even when the stadia in which the matches take place are far from full. Our results also suggest that matches not only impacted on the spread of the virus in the area in which the match took place, but also the area from which the away team’s supporters travelled from. Overall, our analysis suggests that there should be caution in allowing fans to attend matches despite the economic impact playing football behind closed doors has on clubs.

Keywords: Mass outdoor gatherings; football attendance; Covid-19 transmission; social distancing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H12 I10 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2020-09-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-hea and nep-spo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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