Reevaluation of the Employment Impact of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games

Using empirical methods published more recently than our earlier analysis found in this journal, we continue to find a statistically significant and substantial employment impact of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Post-Olympics versus pre-Olympics employment gains in counties affected by the Olympics exceeded employment gains in the rest of the counties in Georgia by 11% by the end of 2000. In addition, Olympics-affected counties in the metro Atlanta area experienced employment gains relative to other major Southern metropolitan statistical areas of roughly 5%. These results stand up to robustness and falsification tests.