Impact of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games on Employment and Wages in Georgia

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Using a standard differences-in-differences (DD) technique and a modified DD in the slopes this paper determines that hosting the 1996 Summer Olympic Games boosted employment by 17 percent in the counties of Georgia affiliated with and close to Olympic activity, relative to employment increases in other counties in Georgia (the rate of growth increased 0.002 percentage points per quarter). Estimation of a random-growth model confirms a positive impact of the Olympics on employment. In addition, the employment impact is shown to not merely be a "MSA effect;" employment in the northern Olympic venue areas was found to increase 11 percent more post-versus pre-Olympics, compared with other similar Southern MSAs. The evidence of an Olympic impact on wages is weak.

Large sport events and unemployment: the case of the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany

“…Baade and Matheson (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, Coates and Humphreys (1999, 2000aand b, 2002, 2003a, and Hotchkiss et al (2003).…”

“…They are available from the authors on request. Hotchkiss et al (2003) use a standard "Difference-in-Difference" estimate in order to be able to detect changes in a) the intercept, i.e. in the levels of the employment and wages, and b) the slope, i.e.…”

“…Baim (1994) found positive employment effects for Major League baseball and football for 15 cities in the USA. Hotchkiss et al (2003) found significant positive effects on employment in regions of Georgia (USA) affiliated or close to activities of the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, but they did not find significant effects on wages. The present work supplements previous publications in a number of respects.…”

“…This is particularly interesting set against the background of the contrasting modes of functioning of the labour markets in the USA and Europe. In addition, it also tests for method sensitivity by running the dataset in parallel with the three methods usually applied in the studies of Baade and Matheson (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, Coates and Humphreys (1999, 2000aand b, 2002, 2003a and Hotchkiss et al (2003) as well as with a fourth method that attempts to overcome some potential shortcomings associated with the three other methods. Section 2 elaborates on the methods, data and results.…”

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“…As the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia brought 17% increment of employment rate after the event to the host city (Hotchkiss, Moore, & Zobay, 2003), mega sporting events might provide new employment opportunities that are created through direct and indirect consequences. These new jobs could be categorized as long term and permanent ones (e.g., engineers for new infrastructures, restaurant labors), while others are short term and intensive opportunities (e.g., construction workers, event securities) (Baum & Lockstone, 2007;Kavetsos & Szymanski, 2010;Li & McCabe, 2013).…”