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The Effect of Professional Sports on the Earnings of Individuals: Evidence from Microeconomic Data

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  • Dennis Coates
  • Brad R. Humphreys

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of professional sports teams and stadiums on the wages of individuals employed in several narrowly defined occupational groups in cities in the United States. The occupational groups examined are among those that proponents of public funding of professional sports claim will benefit economically from these stadiums. Our analysis uses data from the March Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the period 1977 to 1998 as well as sports variables previously utilized by Coates and Humphreys (1999), (2001). Previous research focused on aggregate measures of income whereas here the focus is on the wages of individual workers. The results of the study confirm conclusions of earlier research that the overall sports environment is frequently statistically significant as a determinant of earnings and that the predicted mean impact of sports on wages in a sample of individuals employed in occupations closely related to professional sports is an annual average decrease in real earnings of $47.95. The results also show that the effects of the sports environment on wages differ across job-types. Workers in retail occupations earn more on average each year due to the presence of professional sports while workers in other peripherally related occupations like food services and hotels earn less.

Suggested Citation

  • Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2003. "The Effect of Professional Sports on the Earnings of Individuals: Evidence from Microeconomic Data," UMBC Economics Department Working Papers 03-104, UMBC Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:umb:econwp:03104
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    File URL: http://www.umbc.edu/economics/wpapers/wp_03_104.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kevin M. Murphy & Finis Welch, 1992. "The Structure of Wages," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(1), pages 285-326.
    2. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2001. "The Economic Consequences of Professional Sports Strikes and Lockouts," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(3), pages 737-747, January.
    3. Carlino, Gerald & Coulson, N. Edward, 2004. "Compensating differentials and the social benefits of the NFL," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 25-50, July.
    4. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 1999. "The growth effects of sport franchises, stadia, and arenas," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 601-624.
    5. Topel, Robert H, 1986. "Local Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 111-143, June.
    6. John J. Siegfried & Andrew Zimbalist, 2000. "The Economics of Sports Facilities and Their Communities," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 95-114, Summer.
    7. Coates, Dennis & Humphreys, Brad R., 2003. "The effect of professional sports on earnings and employment in the services and retail sectors in US cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 175-198, March.
    8. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2003. "Cluster-Sample Methods in Applied Econometrics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 133-138, May.
    9. Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2001. "The Economic Consequences of Professional Sports Strikes and Lockouts," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(3), pages 737-747, January.
    10. Robert A. Baade & Richard F. Dye, 1988. "Sports Stadiums and Area Development: A Critical Review," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 2(3), pages 265-275, August.
    11. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Brad R. Humphreys, 2023. "Professional Sports Subsidies and Urban Congestion Externalities: Assessing 50 Years of Failed Urban Economic Development Policies," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 457-474, October.
    2. Lasse Steiner & Bruno Frey & Simone Hotz, 2015. "European Capitals of Culture and life satisfaction," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(2), pages 374-394, February.
    3. Jennifer M. Connolly & Michael Touchton, 2020. "The Lure of New Jobs: How Framing Impacts Perceptions of Local Subsidies for Sports Teams," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 86-103, December.
    4. Carlos Pestana Barros & Nicolas Peypoch & Scott Tainsky, 2014. "Cost efficiency of French soccer league teams," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 781-789, March.
    5. Geoffrey Propheter, 2019. "Estimating the Effect of Sports Facilities on Local Area Commercial Rents: Evidence From Brooklyn’s Barclays Center," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(1), pages 91-114, January.
    6. Kavetsos, Georgios & Szymanski, Stefan, 2010. "National well-being and international sports events," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 158-171, April.
    7. Geoffrey Propheter, 2020. "Does Proximity to a New Sports Facility Affect Existing Businesses’ Survival Time?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(5), pages 451-476, June.
    8. Brooke Crutchfield & Jonathan Willner, 2016. "Football in Greater Manchester: Growth Effects of Premiership Status Teams," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 22(4), pages 447-456, November.
    9. Giles Atkinson & Susana Mourato & Stefan Szymanski & Ece Ozdemiroglu, 2008. "Are We Willing to Pay Enough to `Back the Bid'?: Valuing the Intangible Impacts of London's Bid to Host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(2), pages 419-444, February.
    10. Muhammad Q. Islam, 2019. "Local Development Effect of Sports Facilities and Sports Teams: Case Studies Using Synthetic Control Method," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(2), pages 242-260, February.
    11. Geoffrey Propheter, 2021. "Sports facilities and the local property tax base in recovery," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 1687-1701, October.
    12. C. P. Barros & O. H. dos S. Figueiredo & Silvestre Dumbo, 2016. "A performance assessment of the Angolan soccer league," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(29), pages 2711-2720, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Local Economic Development; Professional Sports; Current Population Survey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

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