An Olympic stimulus?

The Olympic games might give a long-lasting boost to east London. That's one inference of this new paper. It estimates that regions which were venues for parts of the 1972 Munich Olympics enjoyed GDP growth of around 8.6 per cent  relative to non-venue regions between 1966 (when the venues were announced) and 1988.
However, the paper found no statistically significant employment effects - contrary to the experience of the Atlanta games, which does seem to have created jobs. And it found that all the boost came in 1966-72 - that is, as a result of the investments made in preparation for the games - with the "legacy effect" being roughly zero.
Nevertheless, given that the 1972 games were not an unmitigated success, this suggests a reason for greater optimism than some earlier findings. 

Comments

[dearieme]

I dare say that some old-school Bavarians thought it a great success.

[Stephen Gordon]

Hee. We in Quebec have written off the 1976 Olympics as a complete loss: Olympic Stadium is falling apart, the velodrome has been turned into a zoo, and the debt was paid off only a few months ago.

[Workshy Fop]

The fact that non-venue regions performed significantly less well probably doesn't say much for the committee's claim that the whole of the UK will benefit from the Olympics.