The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris recently ended. With this event comes a typical avalanche of claims that the Games will produce a positive economic impact. One headline from Reuters claims that the Paris Games are expected to "buoy economic growth" for France in 2024.

Ata Ufuk ?eker, writing for Anadolu Ajans?, chronicles some of the estimates of the impact of the Olympic Games in France. He writes:

The official budget of Paris 2024 Olympics is estimated at $9.5 billion, and the hosting country's expenditures for the duration of the event [are] estimated to reach $10.8 billion.

The Games are expected to contribute around $7.2 billion to $12 billion to the Paris Region, data from the French-based research organization Center for Law and Economics of Sport (CDES) showed.

The event will create 181,000 jobs and act as a lever to boost economic activity and employment, according to the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A study conducted by the consultancy firm Asteres revealed that the spending associated with the organization of the Olympics is equivalent to public spending, as the study estimated that France will generate $5.7 billion in tax and social security revenues from the event.

This sounds like good news for France, but we should be wary of taking these statistics at face value. Historically, the Olympics has not been as financially kind to countries as initial estimates predicted.

Let's look at some of the data to back up this claim. In their textbook The Economics of Sports, Michael A. Leeds, Peter von Allmen, and Victor A. Matheson survey available research to find estimates of the economic impact of the Olympic Games and other "mega-events" (e.g., World Cups and Super Bowls) before and after the event is held. The data show that these events often underperform expectations.