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Unconventional wisdom: Estimating the economic impact of the Democratic and Republican national political conventions
Author(s) -
Heller Lauren R.,
Matheson Victor A.,
Stephenson E. Frank
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
papers in regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1435-5957
pISSN - 1056-8190
DOI - 10.1111/pirs.12311
Subject(s) - revenue , politics , democracy , offset (computer science) , occupancy , economic impact analysis , economics , political economy , political science , law , finance , engineering , microeconomics , architectural engineering , computer science , programming language
Abstract We use daily hotel occupancy, price, and revenue data to analyse the economic impact of the 2008 and 2012 Democratic and Republican national conventions. We find that political conventions generate approximately 29,000 room nights of lodging, though this figure is partially offset by lower hotel occupancy during the week before and, to a lesser extent, after conventions. Conventions increase hotel revenue by approximately $20 million on average, a figure which suggests that host cities’ claims of economic impacts of $150 million or more may be implausible.