Using the seven weeks of canceled baseball games caused by the 1994 strike as a natural experiment, the author analyzes the degree to which the absence of baseball affected retail trade and hotel room sales in the 24 U.S. cities hosting baseball franchises and in 4 control cites. The most important finding is that the strike had little, if any, economic impact on host cities. Retail trade appeared to be almost completely unaffected by the strike, and the declines in hotel room sales in 10 baseball cities were not consistent with decreases expected by changes associated with the strike.
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