How Does The World Cup Affect The Economy?

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How Does the World Cup Affect the Economy?
The FIFA World Cup together with the World Expo and the Olympic Games are regarded as the most prestigious sporting events in the world and countries hosting them are projected to reap huge economic benefits. These events contribute to the huge influx of people into the host countries as well as increased publicly-funded infrastructure, including construction of stadiums, roads, and airports among other things. For instance, in Uruguay where the first World Cup was held, approximately half a million people visited the country. The number has been increasing in successive World Cups with more than 3 million spectators attending World Cups held in Germany and South Africa. The amount invested in infrastructure and World Cup events has also increased massively. Some economist suggests that it is not economically viable to invest such a huge amount if it will last only for a month. They argue that the costs of attaining these noble goals typically outweigh the subsequent economic benefits. I believe that hosting a mega sporting event like the FIFA World Cup plays a crucial role in the economic growth of the host country. I will use various scholarly articles to back my argument and show how mega sporting events are economically beneficial to the host country.
Research Context
Various research studies confirm that the World Cup has short- and long-term economic benefits within retailing, employment, accommodation and tourism sectors of host countries such as Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Germany and Italy among others. In this research five scholarly articles, all related to the past FIFA World Cups will be analyzed in a bid to discern the economic benefits realized by host countries. The articles will be selected by their relevance to the research topic. Other selection criteria will include the credibility and reliability of sources depending on the authors. The sources will be summarized and analyzed thoroughly to reveal the role World Cup plays in the economic growth of host countries. The short- and long-term benefits will be presented after a complete analysis of these scholarly articles.
Summary and Analysis of Articles
Antуn, Antonio J. Monroy, Juan Josй Mйndez Alonso, and Gema Sбez Rodrнguez. "Mega-events impact on economic growth: Analysis of the South African World Cup." African journal of business management 5.16 (2011): 6940-6948.
Antуn et al. (2011) inspect economic benefits South Africa would obtain by hosting the 2010 World Cup. The authors examine economic trends of six countries that have hosted World Cup previously, including Mexico 1986, Italy 1990, Brazil 1994, France 1998, Japan and South Korea 2002, and Germany 2006 before, during and after the event. The results indicate that hosting a mega-event has several economic benefits which improve the GDP of the host country. Some countries such as Japan recorded four years of economic growth after the 2002 World cup. The pre-economic growth was observed in the case of South Africa, a period between 2004 and 2008. The study, therefore concludes that the previous host countries benefited from improved infrastructure such as iconic stadiums, roads constructed in preparation for the World Cup. In a short-term basis, the result indicates that countries may benefit from improved tourism and retail sectors as well as increased employment opportunities.
The authors clearly explain how a world cup event is economically important to the host country. They have provided concrete examples and backed their claims with data. I will use information contained in this article to describe how a mega-sporting event contributes to both the short-and long-term economic benefits to the host country. Long-term economic benefits such as infrastructure and short-term ones are clearly explained in this article which will help me mount a critical argument that mega-sporting events play a crucial role in the economic growth of a host country.
Matsuoka De Aragao, Mirele. "Economic Impacts of the FIFA World Cup in Developing Countries." (2015).
Matsuoka De Aragao (2015) examines the economic benefits of the World Cup in developing countries. In his study, he included two developing countries that hosted the World Cup, South Africa and Brazil in 2010 and 2014 respectively. To measure economic growth in these countries, the author used parameters such as employment, tourism, infrastructure, and GDP. The result of his study indicates that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had positive economic growth and contributed a total of 509 million dollars to 2010 GDP. Besides, it created over 130,000 jobs through the construction of infrastructures such as stadiums and hospitality structures. Finally, the study indicates that the infrastructure built during the event is still contributing to the economy of the country even after the event. In Brazil, the same benefits were recorded. The 2014 World Cup contributed $13.43 billion to the Brazilian economy in 2014. The tourism sector contributed approximately $3 billion coming from both domestic and foreign tourists. Also, the event created nearly one million jobs of which 200,000 were temporary, and 710,000 were permanent. Also, roads and airports constructed during this time still contribute to the country’s economy.
As this article suggests, hosting a World Cup has several both long- and short-term economic benefits such as improved tourism, employment opportunities, and improved infrastructure. All these will help mount a strong argument that hosting the World Cup impacts the economy of the host country positively. The source is important as far as the statistical aspect of my study is concerned. A research study with statistical evidence is more acceptable than the one without.
Allmers, Swantje, and Wolfgang Maennig. "Economic impacts of the FIFA soccer world cups in France 1998, Germany 2006, and outlook for South Africa 2010." Eastern economic journal 35.4 (2009): 500-519.
Allmers and Wolfgang (2009) present qualitative research to compare economic benefits between two countries, France 1998 and Germany 2006 in a bid to predict how ...