Next week's lecture will be on the economics of sport, and hence what more timely a reminder do we need of sport's contribution to the UK economy than today's GDP growth figures? The Office for National Statistics has released the preliminary estimate of GDP growth for the months surrounding the Olympics - 2012Q3, and they suggest that the ticket sales alone for the Olympic and Paralympic games contributed 0.2% of GDP. That's without considering other impacts on tourism spending, hotels and so on.
We are economists so we ought to think a little further about the opportunity cost - were many tourists also put off coming to the UK in 2012 due to the Games? Did many Brits take the opportunity to leave the country to avoid the expected chaos (that actually never materialised)?
However, the bottom line is that the Olympic Games have helped return the UK to growth, displaying the economic impact sporting events can have.
The question will be how long this is sustained for - will 2012Q4 also report growth?
This blog accompanies the econ217ab Contemporary Issues in the UK Economy course provided for intermediate economics undergraduates by the Department of Economics at the University of Birmingham. We will post on issues that are relevant for the material we lecture on during the course.
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