Never under budget

The current Paris Olympics has brought back the recurring debate about the actual benefit the Games bring to each host city. While in fact the costs of hosting this event have increased exponentially, there is not an equally clear increase in benefits, so much so that Paris is being largely avoided by tourists this summer. For this reason, many economists have called for reforms to the process, including reducing bidding costs and encouraging cities to develop more sustainable development strategies. However, there has been no improvement at the moment: a study by Oxford University shows that the Olympics is the only type of project that has never been on budget, ever, and even today, despite reforms, cost overruns are the norm for the Games. Moreover, costs are rising in a statistically significant way, while previous analyses did not show this trend. This means that steps are being taken, but in the wrong direction.

Source: Budzier and Flyvbjerg, “The Oxford Olympics Study 2024: Are Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games Coming Down?,” SSRN.