Title: Sport participation and migration

Authors: Brad R. Humphreys, Daniel Munich

Addresses: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 104 Huff Hall, Champaign, IL 61820, USA. ' CERGE-EI, P.O. Box 882, Politickych veznu 7, 111 21 Praha 1, Czech Republic

Abstract: We extend an economic model of human capital investment to participation in sport – in the form of training, conditioning and physical development – and explore the implications of this form of human capital investment. The model predicts that the level of sport specific training undertaken will fall short of the socially optimum level, under certain conditions, providing an economic rationale for government subsidies of sport. Introducing the possibility of migration into the model, motivated by the potential for individuals who have invested in sports specific training to migrate from developing or transitional economies to developed economies, produces a similar effect as subsidies. We illustrate the applicability of the model with a discussion of participation in youth ice hockey in the Czech Republic under two different migration regimes.

Keywords: migration; sport participation; human capital investment; social welfare; sports subsidies; training; conditioning; physical development; government subsidies; developing countries; transitional economies; youth ice hockey; Czech Republic.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2008.017210

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2008 Vol.3 No.4, pp.335 - 347

Published online: 19 Feb 2008 *

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