Analysing the Impact of the 2010 Soccer World Cup on South Africa: A Synthetic Control Method

B.M. Moyo () and T.G. Gwatidzo ()
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B.M. Moyo: University of South Africa
T.G. Gwatidzo: University of the Witwatersrand

No WP032025, Working Papers from African Economic and Social Research Institute (AESRI)

Abstract: The announcement that South Africa would host the 2010 FIFA World Cup in 2004 was a triumphant moment for the country and the African continent at large. It marked the first time in FIFA's history that an African country would host the World Cup. In this study, we use the synthetic control method to create a counterfactual South Africa without the World Cup and compare it with the actual South Africa to analyse the impact of this tournament. Our results show that, although hosting the World Cup games in 2010 had no positive impact on GDP, it significantly increased tourism inflows. We, however, found evidence that GDP did increase from the announcement of South Africa hosting the tournament to one year before the event. This suggests that the analysis of these events should focus on both the year of the event and the period immediately after the host announcement.

Keywords: FIFA World Cup; South Africa; GDP; Tourism; Synthetic Control Method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 C33 E23 L83 O11 O47 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2025-12-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo and nep-tur
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