ABSTRACT
Previous research indicates that sporting success of national teams and athletes can create feelings of national pride (Denham, 2010) or a feel-good factor among the population (Forrest and Simmons, 2003). Moreover, governments are increasingly aware of the value of elite sporting success (Houlihan and Green, 2008). These intangible effects can help justifying public subsidies for sports teams and top-level athletes (e.g., Maennig and Porsche, 2008; Wicker, Hallmann, Breuer, and Feiler, 2012). Previous studies have tried to monetize these positive externalities by estimating the value of public goods produced by sports. Several studies investigated diverse issues, such as civic pride created through sports (Walker and Mondello, 2007), the value of Olympic success (Humphreys et al., 2011; Rohkohl and Flatau, 2015; Wicker et al., 2012; Wicker et al., 2015), or the value of a soccer team’s success (Castellanos et al., 2014; Wicker et al., 2015).
