Are sports events necessarily black holes for public finances? The case of Milan-Cortina 2026

The o bjective of this paper is to expl ore whethe r huge publ ic investments in international sports events necessarily turn out to be burdens for regional economies or not. T his will be illustrated by estimating the ec onomic and, in particular, the fiscal impact of the forthcoming Milan -Cortina 2026 Olympics on the economies and the public finances of the Veneto Region and on those of the Autonomous Provi nces of Trento and Bol zano. To thi s end, we use an Input - Output (IO) analysis that we suitably modelled i n or der to measure also the specific impacts of the Olympic event on the nationa l, regional and l ocal tax systems. The paper will argue that in the case of i nternational s ports events, w hen prepared and managed carefully and also when their legacy is rooted in the regional econ omic systems from the start, the net effects of these events on the economy and on the publ ic finances might be pos itive. It also tries to pr ovide regional administrations, s pecifically referring again to the regional g overnments of the Veneto and Trentin o-A lto Adige in particular, with a number of essential elements for a correct assessment of the socio - econ omic impact of this event and some suggestions on how the above -mentio ned po licies before, during and after the event, can help re gi onal administrations to safeguard the collective interest through the hosting of international sp orts events