Last Friday I finally managed to turn in my senior thesis paper. An entire hour before the deadline, no less! Does it ever feel good to be done with that. Here’s the abstract:

“How do the Olympic Games Impact Employment in the Host City?”

Despite the size and prestige of the Olympic Games, few studies exist to determine whether or not the Games benefit host cities. Existing studies suggest that the Olympics may lead to increased employment, but they reach little consensus on the size or length of that impact. Controlling for the effects of GDP and price levels, I measure the size and shape of the “Olympic effect” with a series of time-period dummies and a fixed-effects model. My study examines all Summer Games from 1984 to 2004 in the first panel study of employment surrounding the Olympics. Using a Prais-Winsten method to correct for heteroscedasticity and AR(1) autocorrelation, I find evidence of a significant employment increase lasting in general from 6 years before the Olympics to 1 year after the Games, with a marginally significant boost lasting up to 8 years afterward. I also find that higher Olympic expenditures are negatively correlated with the size of the Olympic effect, and that the employment impact of the Olympics may be larger in wealthier countries.

If you’re up for more than a little light reading, you can check out the full version here [PDF].

Now I can have a life again!

Posted on February 28th, 2006 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized