Economic aspects of health through sport (SEO Overdruk nr 55) (1989)

This document is reprinted by permission of the editor: Papers and Proceedings of the Conference on the Economic Impact of Sport in Europe, Council of Europe. In this paper the authors first attempt to trace the alleged relationship between sporting activity and physical health, and secondly they try to quantify the economic value of the relationship. Use is made of an already existing dataset containing individual information on an array of indicators of physical condition, of demand for health services and of sporting intensity. It is argued, that, generally speaking, sporting activity is indeed good for the health. However, the often heard suggestion that sport reduces the need for health services throughout the society, which may therefore be considered as a major economic argument for the government to promote and sustain Sport for All, can not be confirmed in case of the Netherlands. As it turns out, demand for some health services seems to increase, due to sport, thus causing considerable external economic costs. In fact, the external costs even seem to almost cancel out the external benefits.