Sports and Development

ECONOMICS OF DEVELOPMENT, Fall 2013

SPORT AND DEVELOPMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

This paper analyses how sport can affect the development nowadays, both from an economical and social point of view. It brings an overview of all the main areas in which sport can have an important role and some examples that make proof of it. So, why sport? And how to analyse it? It all got started with a brainstorming. After thinking carefully about a lot of ‘typical’ issues related with development we came with the idea of studying something relatively new and, in some sense, ‘outside the box’. Our first intuition was that it existed relation between sports and development, not only in terms of economical improvement but also in terms of social development (that in the long term implies sustainable economical growth). From this point on, we left apart our intuitions, ideas and feelings and we started searching for data that could proof the hypotesis done before. We followed two different investigation lines: One related with the economy and the other with the social affairs. For the first one we have been looking straight to economical indicators whereas for the other one we specially focused on relevant research articles from United Nations and other international well-known organisations (see bibliography).

2. ECONOMIC IMPACT

Sport is one of the largest industries and engine for economic development of communities and nations mainly by creating jobs and developing business within and beyond the sports industry. Some industries may contain only one product but this industry comprises a huge variety of product items sold to many existing or potential consumers related with: equipment, apparel, participation, entertainment, marketing research, management services, etc. In this way, to set the stage for further reflection afterwards, we have typified sport products in 4 main sections: Sport Opportunities: Sports facilities, infrastructure (means of transport, highways, parking…),...