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publications
The Relocation Effect of a Major League Franchise on Residential Property Values
Published in , 2024
We exploit the relocation of the NFL’s Rams franchise as a natural experiment to estimate the effect of residential proximity to sports amenities using difference-in-differences hedonics. For a sample of single-family homes transacted in St. Louis between 2012 and 2019, we reveal that the relocation has provoked a significant relative price depreciation of 7.52% in housing values within a three-mile impact area. Subsequent distance ring analyses show that the effect is dispersed heterogeneously across space and declines in a non-linear distance-decaying pattern from the former host stadium. An approximation of the aggregate relative housing value depreciation suggests that the Rams generated substantial intangible amenity value in St. Louis. However, this magnitude effect may only justify partial subsidies for sports facilities and cannot provide a broader economic rationale for the generous public subsidization seen over the past decades. These results withstand a wide range of robustness checks, although they are somewhat mitigated considering general equilibrium effects
Recommended citation: Froch, Jonas. (2025). ; "The Relocation Effect of a Major League Franchise on Residential Property Values"; Working Paper; University of Cologne
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Contingent Employment and Effort: Lessons from Soccer
Published in , 2025
The contingency of an employment arrangement may incentivize agents to elicit structural behavioral responses driven by career concerns. We develop a dynamic multitasking model predicting that contingent employment strengthens incentives to exert effort, especially in highly visible tasks. Using loan transfers in professional soccer as a proxy, we test this effort-visibility hypothesis via an entropy balancing approach. We find support for our hypothesis in that loan players increase their effort in conspicuous actions, such as shots on target and duels, while reducing effort in more subtle actions, such as passes and ball retention. While we find no significant impact on team performance, the observed behavioral pattern may carry broader implications in the field.
talks
Die Fußball-EM wird die deutsche Wirtschaft nicht aus der Stagnation holen
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I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Adam Magyar from Euronews. I discussed that while the direct, i.e. tangible economic impact of major sporting events, that is the impact in income and employment is vastly neglectable owing to substitution and crowding-out effects, the indirect, i.e. intangible effects could be substantially large as the experience of the “Sommermärchen”, the FIFA World Cup in 2006 in Germany has taught us. In particular increases in civic price and social cohesion and implictly enhance living quality may be observed during major sporting events.
161 Reading Online Sports Economics Seminar (ROSES)
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I had the pleasure to present my working paper at ROSES. I emebed the discussion on the intangible impact of a major league franchise in the local context of the departure of the Rams from St. Louis, delve into the relocation history, and unravel the local idiosyncratic factors underlying the role sports in general, and the Rams in particular play or played for the city of St. Louis. I embed the case study in a broader discussion on the public subsidization of stadium projects. While I find that the Rams generated substantial implicit amenety value in St. Louis, the magnitude effect is still not large enough to derive a compelling argument going beyond partial subsidies.
Is an Olympics in Budapest a reality?
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It was a pleasure to share my thoughts on Hungary potentially hosting the Olympics in 2036, a topic recently covered by Euronews 📰. I explained that the costs typically far exceed the benefits 💸. Common arguments about the short- and long-term advantages—such as job creation 👷♂️ or increased tourism ✈️—can be easily refuted and thus fail to provide a direct economic rationale 📊. While there may be some intangible value, such as boosting the host country’s image 🌍, it’s questionable whether this alone can justify such immense expenses 🏛️. More likely, other factors, such as political considerations, drove the interest in hosting major sporting events in recent years.
Top sports business: the 59th Super Bowl is coming
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I recently provided expert insights on the economic impact of the NFL Germany games. According to a study by The Sports Consultancy 📊, the inaugural game in Munich generated an estimated economic impact of €70.2 million, including €32.2 million in direct spending 💰. Similarly, the Frankfurt games contributed around €110 million, with an additional €8 million in projected sales tax revenue 💸. These figures suggest a notable boost to local economies, especially in cities like Frankfurt, which are less established as major tourist destinations 🌍.
teaching
Empirical Replications in Sports Economics
Undergraduate course, University of Cologne, 2024
I recently taught the course Empirical Replication in Sports Economics to undergraduate Economics students at the WiSo Faculty, University of Cologne. This course introduces students to sports economics, familiarizes them with empirical research design, and provides them with the skills needed to replicate a selected study from the field.