Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/146113 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 858
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
We show that hosting the Olympic Games in 2012 had a positive impact on the life satisfaction and happiness of Londoners during the Games, compared to residents of Paris and Berlin. Notwithstanding issues of causal inference, the magnitude of the effects is equivalent to moving from the bottom to the fourth income decile. But they do not last very long: the effects are gone within a year. These conclusions are based on a novel panel survey of 26,000 individuals who were interviewed during the summers of 2011, 2012, and 2013, i.e. before, during, and after the event. The results are robust to selection into the survey and to the number of medals won.
Subjects: 
subjective wellbeing
life satisfaction
happiness
Olympic Games
natural experiment
JEL: 
I30
I31
I38
L83
Z20
Z28
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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