Research Line 1: Society & Public Policy

This Research Line intends to contribute to current public policy debates on the financing of sports and the (beneficial) effects associated with sports participation and physical activity, such as increased mental and physical well-being or the accumulation of social and human capital, which might be (directly or indirectly) rewarded in the labor market.

Research Line 1 is embedded into the Institute’s Research Lines Education/Life Course Development and Health and linked to the Faculty’s core research area Education, Qualification, and Lifelong Learning, the University’s core research area Education and Media as well as the Graduate School and Research Network Learning, Educational Achievement, and Life Course Development (LEAD). Selected studies were conducted on behalf of public institutions (such as the Federal Ministry of Finance in Germany) and funded with research grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).

• Do local expenditures on sports facilities affect sports participation?, Economic Inquiry, 61(4), 1103-1128, 2023. (with C. Steckenleiter, M. Lechner, & U. Schüttoff).
• Trust in fairness, doping, and the demand for sports: a study on international track and field events, European Sport Management Quarterly, 21(5), 731–747, 2021 (co-authored by F. Otto, T. Pawlowski & S. Utz).
• Individual labor market effects of local public expenditures on sports, Labour Economics, 70, 2021 (co-authored by T. Pawlowski, C. Steckenleiter, T. Wallrafen & M. Lechner).
• Can sport really help to meet the Millennium Development Goals? Evidence from children in Peru, Journal of Sports Economics, 19(4), 498-521, 2018 (co-authored by T. Pawlowski, U. Schüttoff, P. Downward & M. Lechner).
• Sports participation and social capital formation during adolescence, Social Science Quarterly, 99 (2), 683-698, 2018, doi 10.1111/ssqu.12453 (co-authored by U. Schüttoff, T. Pawlowski, P. Downward, & M. Lechner).
• Seasonal variation in sports participation. Journal of Sports Sciences, 36(4), 469-475, 2018 (co-authored by U. Schüttoff & T. Pawlowski).
• Assessing parental impact on the sports participation of children: A socio-economic analysis of the UK, European Journal of Sport Science, 14(1), 84-90, 2014 (co-authored by P. Downward, K. Hallmann, & T. Pawlowski).
• Does national pride from international sporting success contribute to well-being? An international investigation. Sport Management Review, 17(2), 121-132, 2014 (co-authored by T. Pawlowski, P. Downward, & S. Rasciute).
• Expenditure elasticities of the demand for leisure services. Applied Economics, 44 (26), 3461-3477, 2012 (co-authored by T. Pawlowski & C. Breuer).