The World Cup starts on Friday, and for many of us our productivity will plummet as a result. For me the efficiency-loss started early, as last week I pulled together this brief reading list on football, sports and development. Lots of it we have already blogged about, but some of the new stuff includes:
- The World Cup and Economic 2006
- The Homeless World Cup
- Legal Determinants of World Cup Success
- Impact of Overwhelming Joy on Consumer Demand: The Case of a Soccer World-Cup Victory
- The Soccer Wars: Bono Says the World Cup Is a Peacemaker. Not Quite
- The Beautiful Game: Why Soccer Rules the World
Also see this story about Sierra Leone’s National Amputee Football Team.
I was also recently sent a hard copy of a UBS wealth management report (that I unfortunately can't put online) that selects a World Cup Equity Team and finds that ‘hosting’ stock markets outperform the broad market during the World Cup months, and that staple consumer equities outperform other sub-sectors during the same period. The authors also conclude that these results are mostly psychologically driven.
For more of an international relations perspective, see Michael Moran on the politics of the ‘world’s game’ or Globalisation on the Pitch.
Update: Eldis has a good post on the same topic. Also see UNICEF's Sports, Recereation and Play and When Goldkeepers Strike. Meanwhile, GMI has done a poll of global interest in the World Cup. As much as 27% of respondents plan to take time off for the games (Via Kate Palmer). The tournament has also gone green (Via Grist).
Update: Franklin Foer & Co. are blogging about the World Cup over at the New Republic's blog: Goal Post.
Update: NewScientist has the science behind the World Cup, including:
A mathematical study published in January 2006 confirmed what millions of fans the world over no doubt already suspected: that soccer is not just the world's most popular sport, but also the most exciting.
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