Paulo Jorge Reis Mourão

This paper investigates the statistical relationship between European regional development and the competitiveness of professional soccer teams. Using data on more than 140 European regions (NUT2) from the period 1990–2006, it concludes that professional soccer teams are more likely to show superior performance if their head offices are located in population-dense regions that have a high GDP and in highly urbanized areas.Read more

Eric Barget
Jean-Jacques Gougout

An economic impact assessment alone cannot justify public support for hosting mega-sporting events. A cost-benefit analysis in order to measure the net social utility for the population is also relevant. Nevertheless, if there is always a high demand of economic impact studies by public authorities before hosting an event, the cost-benefit studies are never made, so there is a high risk to make decisions that are not rational. In this paper, to take into account simultaneously the economic impact and the social utility of mega-sporting events, we propose a legitimacy test we illustrate...Read more