The closer the sportier? : children's sport activity and their distance to sport facilities

We investigate whether the distance between the next sport facilities and children's homes matter for their sports activities inside and outside of sport clubs. Our analysis is based on a large and informative cross-section of individual data of children and their families, the so-called KIGGS data. We use a semiparametric econometric method to investigate this relationship empirically. Our results suggest that while the distance does not matter in larger towns and cities, it does matter in smaller towns and in particular on the countryside. Keywords: Sport activities of children, KIGGS data, propensity score matching methods.