IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v243y2024ics0165176524004105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Caitlin Clark's surprising economic impact

Author

Listed:
  • Stephenson, E. Frank

Abstract

Increases in attendance for University of Iowa's women's basketball games caused by star player Caitlin Clark have led to claims of large economic benefits for Iowa City. This paper uses daily hotel occupancy data to analyze the visitor inflow arising from Clark's stardom. The findings show a surprising pattern: hotel occupancy did increase substantially during Clark's junior season but showed a much smaller increase during her senior season, even with considerably higher game attendance. Local fans substituting from men's games to women's games, thereby leaving fewer women's basketball seats available for out-of-town visitors, appears to explain at least some of the smaller hotel occupancy effect in Clark's senior season.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephenson, E. Frank, 2024. "Caitlin Clark's surprising economic impact," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:243:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524004105
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111926
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176524004105
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111926?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tim Wallrafen & Tim Pawlowski & Christian Deutscher, 2019. "Substitution in Sports: The Case of Lower Division Football Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(3), pages 319-343, April.
    2. Yulia Chikish & Brad R. Humphreys & Crocker Liu & Adam Nowak, 2019. "Sports‐Led Tourism, Spatial Displacement, And Hotel Demand," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(4), pages 1859-1878, October.
    3. Lauren R. Heller & E. Frank Stephenson, 2021. "How Does the Super Bowl Affect Host City Tourism?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(2), pages 183-201, February.
    4. Sofia Izquierdo Sanchez & Caroline Elliott & Robert Simmons, 2016. "Substitution between leisure activities: a quasi-natural experiment using sports viewing and cinema attendance," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(40), pages 3848-3860, August.
    5. Brad R. Humphreys & Candon Johnson, 2020. "The Effect of Superstars on Game Attendance: Evidence From the NBA," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(2), pages 152-175, February.
    6. John Charles Bradbury & Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2023. "The impact of professional sports franchises and venues on local economies: A comprehensive survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1389-1431, September.
    7. Craig A. Depken & E. Frank Stephenson, 2018. "Hotel Demand Before, During, And After Sports Events: Evidence From Charlotte, North Carolina," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1764-1776, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clay Collins & Craig A. Depken & E. Frank Stephenson, 2022. "The Impact of Sporting and Cultural Events in a Heterogeneous Hotel Market: Evidence from Austin, TX," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 518-547, October.
    2. Martin Thomas Falk & Markku Vieru, 2021. "Short-term hotel room price effects of sporting events," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(3), pages 569-588, May.
    3. Colin Steitz & Joshua Hall, 2020. "The Impact of Conventions on Hotel Demand: Evidence from Indianapolis Using Daily Hotel Occupancy Data," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, September.
    4. John Charles Bradbury & Dennis Coates & Brad R. Humphreys, 2023. "The impact of professional sports franchises and venues on local economies: A comprehensive survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1389-1431, September.
    5. E. Frank Stephenson, 2021. "The cost of losing a National Football League franchise: evidence from hotel occupancy data," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(18), pages 1558-1561, October.
    6. Joshua Martin & Joshua Hall, 2020. "The Impact of the New York City Marathon on Hotel Demand," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10, October.
    7. Lauren R. Heller & E. Frank Stephenson, 2021. "How Does the Super Bowl Affect Host City Tourism?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(2), pages 183-201, February.
    8. Meehan, Brian & Rusko, Corey J. & Stephenson, E. Frank, 2020. "(Pot)Heads in Beds: The Eect of Marijuana Legalization on Hotel Occupancy in Colorado and Washington," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 50(01), May.
    9. Teemu Makkonen & Timo Mitze, 2023. "Vive le Tour!? Estimating the place‐based benefits of hosting the Tour de France," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(5), pages 1131-1161, November.
    10. Bruno Caprettini, 2021. "Team Visibility and City Travel: Evidence From the UEFA Champions' League Random Draw," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(1), pages 85-114, January.
    11. Dominik Schreyer, 2019. "Football spectator no-show behaviour in the German Bundesliga," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(45), pages 4882-4901, September.
    12. Stefan Szymanski, 2021. "On the Incidence of an Ad Valorem Tax: The Adoption of VAT in the UK and Cost Pass Through by English Football Clubs," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 37-61, February.
    13. Rodrigo Schneider & Peter Allmen & Garrett Munck, 2022. "The impact of winter Olympic games participation on NHL attendance," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 253-270, December.
    14. Craig A. Depken II & Benjamin L. Fore, 2020. "Firm-Level Economic Activity Before, During, and After Local Events: A Case Study," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(4), pages 327-334, May.
    15. E. Frank Stephenson, 2024. "International Competitions, Star Players, and NWSL Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(2), pages 186-199, February.
    16. Martínez-de-Albéniz, Victor & Belkaid, Abdel, 2021. "Here comes the sun: Fashion goods retailing under weather fluctuations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(3), pages 820-830.
    17. Sayantan Ghosh Dastidar & Caroline Elliott, 2020. "The Indian film industry in a changing international market," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 44(1), pages 97-116, March.
    18. Carl Singleton & J. James Reade & Johan Rewilak & Dominik Schreyer, 2021. "How big is home advantage at the Olympic Games?," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2021-13, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    19. Jaume García & Plácido Rodríguez & Federico Todeschini, 2020. "The Demand for the Characteristics of Football Matches: A Hedonic Price Approach," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(7), pages 688-704, October.
    20. Jan C. van Ours, 2022. "The contribution of Johan Cruyff to success and stadium attendance at Feyenoord," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(18), pages 1752-1755, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Caitlin Clark; Hotel occupancy; Attendance; Economic impact;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z20 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - General
    • Z30 - Other Special Topics - - Tourism Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:243:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524004105. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.