Effects of large gatherings on the COVID-19 epidemic: Evidence from professional and college sports

Effects of large gatherings on the COVID-19 epidemic: Evidence from professional and college sports

•We compare COVID-19 case loads and mortality across counties that hosted more versus fewer NHL hockey games, NBA basketball games, and NCAA basketball games in March of 2020, before any large outbreaks were identified.•We find that hosting one additional NHL/NBA game in March 2020 led to an additio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economics and human biology Vol. 43; p. 101033
Main Authors: Carlin, Patrick R., Minard, Paul, Simon, Daniel H., Wing, Coady
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01-12-2021
Subjects:
Basketball
COVID-19
Health economics
Hockey
Humans
Male
Pandemics
Population health
Quasi-experiments
SARS-CoV-2
I18
Health economics
Pandemics
H0
H12
I10
Quasi-experiments
Population health
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Summary:•We compare COVID-19 case loads and mortality across counties that hosted more versus fewer NHL hockey games, NBA basketball games, and NCAA basketball games in March of 2020, before any large outbreaks were identified.•We find that hosting one additional NHL/NBA game in March 2020 led to an additional 7520 cases and 658 deaths.•Similarly, we find that hosting an additional NCAA Division 1 men's basketball game in March 2020 resulted in an additional 34 deaths.•Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the per-game fatality costs were 200–300 times greater than per-game spending. We compare COVID-19 case loads and mortality across counties that hosted more versus fewer NHL hockey games, NBA basketball games, and NCAA basketball games during the early months of 2020, before any large outbreaks were identified. We find that hosting one additional NHL/NBA game in March 2020 leads to an additional 7520 cases and 658 deaths. Similarly, we find that hosting an additional NCAA Division 1 men's basketball game in March 2020 results in an additional 34 deaths. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the per-game fatality costs were 200–300 times greater than per-game spending.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:1570-677X
1873-6130
DOI:10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101033