'Be wary of Olympic boosters making bold economic predictions' Canadian Business Read Time 1 Minute Issues and Ideas In a Canadian Business article challenging British Prime Minister David Cameron"s prediction of a £13 billion boost to the local economy as a result of the Olympic Games, Victor Matheson, associate professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross, draws attention to “the substitution effect," one of the factors that negates boosters' promises of major economic gains.“A local resident who goes to an All-Star Game when it is in town is spending money at the game that likely would have been spent locally elsewhere in the absence of the game," Matheson wrote in his paper “Mega-Events: The effect of the world’s biggest sporting events on local, regional, and national economies,” which was excerpted in the article. "Therefore, the local consumer’s spending on a sporting event is not new economic activity, rather a reshuffling of local spending. For this reason, most economists advocate that spending by local residents be excluded from any economic impact estimates.” Read the Canadian Business article This "Holy Cross in the News" item by Kristine Maloney. More Stories Image Go to Story Thorns, Spines and Prickers, Oh My: The Defense Mechanisms of Plants Image Go to Story Holy Cross’ (Unexpected) Hottest Course Image Go to Story Who is Our Neighbor, Really? View All Stories
In a Canadian Business article challenging British Prime Minister David Cameron"s prediction of a £13 billion boost to the local economy as a result of the Olympic Games, Victor Matheson, associate professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross, draws attention to “the substitution effect," one of the factors that negates boosters' promises of major economic gains.
