Ben Strong writes: The Olympic Games should be the pinnacle of the sport. This is in two ways. Winning an Olympic gold medal should be the absolute pinnacle of that sport, and in the spirit of its amateur traditions, sports that are professional behemoths shouldn’t really be involved. That’s why the axe should swing firmly […]
What sports should be in the Olympics?
What sports should be in the Olympics?
17 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: Olympics
Blokes are bigger
10 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, health economics, sports economics Tags: gender gap, Olympics
How Olympians Have Changed (1924-2014)
27 May 2018 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: Olympics
Jesse Owens, Hitler reaction
07 Apr 2018 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: Nazi Germany, Olympics
Drug testing is a recent innovation in Curling
21 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: drug testing, drugs in sport, Olympics
Star Wars AT-AT attacks Sochi Winter Olympics!
17 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in movies, sports economics Tags: Olympics
Winter Olympics – Ultra Spiritual Life episode 95
12 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: Olympics
Why Hosting The Olympics Isn’t Worth It Anymore @TaxpayersUnion
07 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: mega sports events, Olympics
Cost of the summer and winter Olympics since 1960
16 Nov 2017 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: Olympics
The Olympics 50 years ago and now in acrobatic stamina
14 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economics, sports economics Tags: Olympics
HT: Helen Dale
Despite a lack of snow, water, or winter sports, Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics
01 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: Olympics
What the mountain that will host the Beijing Olympics looks like in the middle of winter read.bi/1fOQvzu http://t.co/UCq1WkEnIf—
Business Insider (@businessinsider) July 31, 2015
The Modern Olympics begin in Athens today, 1896
06 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in sports economics Tags: Olympics
On today's date: The Modern Olympics begin in Athens with eight nations participating (1896) http://t.co/u8pQCBWYPL—
Déjà vu News (@dejavunews) April 06, 2015
Olympic gold winning vaults 80 years apart
08 Jan 2015 1 Comment
The importance of bidding for the Olympics, losing that bid, but putting on a good show
18 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, industrial organisation, international economics Tags: game theory, mega sports events, mega-events, Olympics, signalling
Both successful and unsuccessful bids to host the Olympics have a similar positive impact on exports according to Andrew Rose – no relation.
The Olympic effect on trade is from a signal that a country sends when bidding to host the games, rather than actually hosting the event.
A country that wishes to liberalise its trade may want to signal this by bidding to host a mega-event. It generates extra trade-related investment and creates a political atmosphere where back-sliding on trade liberalisation or the mega-event becomes difficult.
- Rome was awarded the 1960 games in 1955: the same year that Italy started to move towards currency convertibility, joined the UN, and began the negotiations that lead two years later to the Treaty of Rome and the creation of the European Economic Community.
- The Tokyo games of 1964 coincided with Japanese entry into the IMF and the OECD.
- Barcelona was awarded the 1992 games in 1986, the same year Spain joined the European economic community.
- The decision to award Korea the 1988 games coincided with Korea’s political liberalisation.
Many of the countries that are hosted the Olympic Games in recent years such as China have done so as part of showing to the world that they have made it and there’s no going back.
The trick then for the taxpayer is for your country’s bid to host the Olympics to come a close second without anyone knowing you really want to lose.
The trouble with treating the Olympic bid is all show to boost your image as an investment destination and a liberalising economy is your beard might actually win. Throwing a fight is never easy as many a boxer knows.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments