Mega-events Prefer Autocracies: Evidence from the Olympic Games

Student: Avkhimovich Nikolai

Supervisor: Konstantin Sonin

Educational Programme: Joint HSE-NES Undergraduate Program in Economics (Bachelor)

Final Grade: 8

Year of Graduation: 2017

The paper answers, how political regime in the particular country affects the probability of making the bid for and hosting the Olympic Games. The analysis is based on three samples of potential hosts, bidders and all National Olympic Committees in different periods. The author concludes, that lower level of democracy in the particular country leads to higher probability not only to make a bid successfully, but also to host the Olympic Games. The author proposes three main reasons for that: the willingness of autocratic leader to spend more money on bribes to the IOC members; the higher importance of prestige for a modern dictator, than a democrat; and less opportunities for imposing restrictions on the decision to host mega-even by the society legally.

Full text (added May 14, 2017)

Student Theses at HSE must be completed in accordance with the University Rules and regulations specified by each educational programme.

Summaries of all theses must be published and made freely available on the HSE website.

The full text of a thesis can be published in open access on the HSE website only if the authoring student (copyright holder) agrees, or, if the thesis was written by a team of students, if all the co-authors (copyright holders) agree. After a thesis is published on the HSE website, it obtains the status of an online publication.

Student theses are objects of copyright and their use is subject to limitations in accordance with the Russian Federation’s law on intellectual property.

In the event that a thesis is quoted or otherwise used, reference to the author’s name and the source of quotation is required.

Search all student theses