| Abstract: |
The impact evaluation of female sports events remains an important yet
neglected area of research. To fill this gap, this working paper provides a
timely assessment of the 2025 UEFA Women's European Championship (WEURO) in
Switzerland-the largest women-specific sports event in Europe with more than
657, 000 spectators. Using city-level data on hotel overnight stays, we apply
the Synthetic Difference-in-Differences approach of Arkhangelsky et al. (2021)
to compare WEURO host cities with non-host destinations. In summary, our
results do not support strong claims of large tourism impacts but rather point
to a small positive effect. Sensitivity analyses also suggest positive
effects. However, confidence intervals permit firm conclusions only for the
main venues, indicating an increase in overnight stays of 1.6% attributable to
the WEURO. Overall, our findings indicate positive but modest tourism impacts
of the WEURO and outline a framework for further policy evaluation of sports
events. |