Major sporting events: assessing the value of volunteers' work

Abstract

This article assesses the value of volunteers' work at sporting events, based on two different theoretical approaches; the Opportunity Cost Approach (OCA) and the Market Price of Equivalency model (MPE). The OCA method assesses the value of the displacement of other goods and services elsewhere in society. In addition, it also takes into account that people enjoy volunteering. The MPE model evaluates what it will cost to purchase the equivalent services that volunteers provide market prices. The article also presents an empirical study from a major sporting event: the 1999 World Ice Hockey Championship. The results from this event indicated a low displacement of other goods and services, both in the formal and the informal economic sector. In addition, a large number of people enjoyed volunteering and hence received so-called psychological rewards. It would have been expensive to purchase the parallel services of what the volunteers provided in the market.