This video is also available on the USCI YouTube Channel.
Click on the play button above to view Jeff Owens’s presentation on the economic impact of the Olympics.
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing continued the pattern of escalating investment in sports venues and other infrastructure by host cities. It is commonly believed that mega-events such as the Olympics leave a large and positive economic legacy for host cities, but ex-post studies have found little or no evidence of such impacts. Although the Olympic Games are a catalyst for investment, this investment is largely ill-suited to contribute to long-term economic growth. There are early indications that this will be just as true for the Beijing Games as it has for other recent Olympics.
