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Blog Post number 4
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Blog Post number 1
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portfolio
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publications
research
Showing Visibility When it Matters: Contingent Employment and Effort
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We examine contingent employment arrangements, assuming that agents perceive them as exceptional opportunities to signal their capabilities to the labor market. We study a multitask career-concerns model in which employment contingency shifts effort toward highly visible tasks at the expense of less visible ones. Exploiting a distinct setting of contingent employment in professional soccer, we test this effort-visibility hypothesis via entropy balancing. Consistent with the model, we observe that agents reallocate effort toward more visible actions while reducing effort in more subtle actions.
Recommended citation: Froch, Jonas; GĂĽrtler, Oliver; Sage, Felix (2026): "Showing Visibility When it Matters: Contingent Employment and Effort"; Working Paper
The Relocation Effect of a Major League Franchise on Residential Property Values
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We exploit the relocation of the NFL’s Rams from St. Louis in 2016 to estimate the localized amenity value associated with a professional sports team. Unlike arrivals, which typically coincide with the construction of a new stadium, this departure left the stadium in use, allowing us to separate the amenity value of the team from that of the facility. Using difference-in-differences hedonics, we find that house prices within three miles of the stadium declined by about 7.8 percent relative to the rest of the city, with an effect that decays nonlinearly with distance. Synthetic control estimates reveal a corresponding shortfall in food service and retail establishments in the urban core, and a mediation analysis suggests that the restaurant channel accounts for about one fifth of the price differential. Both patterns point to forgone growth rather than outright contraction, as the durable stadium and building stock remain in place. The implied loss in amenity value is substantial, though insufficient to justify the public funds proposed to retain the team.
Recommended citation: Froch, Jonas; (2026); "The Relocation Effect of a Major League Franchise on Residential Property Values"; Working Paper
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Religious Fasting and Workplace Productivity
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We investigate the effect of Ramadan fasting on individual worker productivity in a high-stakes competitive setting in which workers can be tracked over time and produce output that is consistently measurable through algorithmic performance ratings. Because workers have no discretion over their hours or working conditions, we can isolate the direct productivity channel from the labor supply and on-the-job behavioral responses that fasting typically induces. Drawing on sixteen years of data from two countries, we compare the relative performance of Muslim and non-Muslim workers within and outside Ramadan in a difference-in-differences design. At the worker level we find no significant Ramadan effect, while accounting for various measures of fasting intensity. We do, however, find suggestive evidence of small negative spillovers from Muslim colleagues, partly offset by a positive effect of facing Muslim workers in the competing firm. This pattern carries over to the firm level, where output declines in the number of Muslim workers a firm relies on during Ramadan. Finally, we find no substantial labor demand responses at the intensive or the extensive margin, and discuss three explanations for the predominantly null findings, namely worker adaptation, the production technology, and organizational accommodation.
Recommended citation: Froch, Jonas; Hua, Chengyuan; Nasser, Galila; (2026); "Religious Fasting and Workplace Productivity"; Working Paper
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talks
Die FuĂźball-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 embed 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 incorporate my findings in a broader discussion on the public subsidization of stadium projects. While I find that the Rams generated substantial implicit amenity 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 appears 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 shared insights on the economic impact of the NFL Germany games. According to a study by The Sports Consultancy, the inaugural Munich game 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 the local economies, especially in Frankfurt, which is less established as a major tourist hub.
teaching
Reproduction Workshop Sports Economics
Undergraduate course, University of Cologne, 2024
Fro the past two years, I have been teaching the project course Reproduction Workshop 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 designs, and provides the skills it needs to reproduce a selected paper from the field.