The Effect of Professional Sports on the Earnings of Individuals: Evidence from Microeconomic Data

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of professional sports teams and stadiums on the wages of individuals employed in several narrowly defined occupational groups in cities in the United States. The occupational groups examined are among those that proponents of public funding of professional sports claim will benefit economically from these stadiums. Our analysis uses data from the March Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the period 1983 to 1998. Previous research focused on aggregate measures of income whereas here the focus is on the wages of individual workers. The results of the study conform conclusions of earlier research that the overall sports environment is frequently statistically significant as a determinant of earnings.