When most people think about the Olympic Games it is usually in terms of athletic performance. Clearly they are more than that (see Toohey & Veal, 1990). Even the mass media does not confine itself to covering only the sporting angle. For example, symbolism, economic factors, nationalism and...

To the best of our knowledge nobody has attempted to elaborate on an economic model for predicting medal wins at the Winter Olympics so far. This contrasts with Summer Olympics for which about thirty studies have estimated economic determinants of sporting performances (among which Andreff, 2001;...

Rose & Spiegel (2011) find that Olympic Games host countries experience significant positive, lasting effects on exports. They interpret their results as an indication that countries use the hosting of such events to signal openness and competitiveness. We challenge these empirical findings on...

While a mega-sport event is scheduled at least once every year somewhere in the world, these events are rare occurrences for the host cities and countries. The benefits of such events seem lucrative; the very fact that many countries bid to host these events suggests that the benefits – be they...

This paper is concerned with the development of urban tourism in the area of Greater Athens. Porter’s “competitive advantage” theory presents the elements which determine the success of an industry in an interactive environment where competition acts as the engine of growth. The paper...

Countries whose cities host the Summer Olympic Games increase significantly their success during the competition. We study whether such effect is lasting or not. We compute the effect of hosting on the total number of medals in the subsequent games. To confront the issue that the selection of...

We project the medal number and medal ranking for the Olympic Games in London in 2012. The largest relative increase is predicted for Brazil (80% more medals) and the UK (+28%).UK will conti-nue to rank 4th. The largest decreases in medal numbers are predicted for Australia (-13%, but remains in...

During the Olympic Games and the World Championships Single Distances the 1000m is skated by every skater only one time. However, there may be a difference in skating a 1000m race with a start in the inner and the outer lane that introduces an externality that introduces unfairness. We show that...

This paper investigates the regional economic impact of the 1996 Olympic Games in Georgia. It questions the findings of Hotchkiss, Moore, and Zobay (2003), who identify significant positive effects of the Olympics on employment in Georgia/USA by first challenging their approach that used a level...