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Citation

Hayward, George M. & Rybinska, Anna (2017). Super Bowl Babies: Do Counties with Super Bowl Winning Teams Experience Increases in Births Nine Months Later?. Socius, 3, 1-14. PMCID: PMC5548444

Abstract

Following the claim of a highly publicized National Football League (NFL) commercial, we test whether the Super Bowl provides a positive exogenous shock to fertility in counties of winning teams. Using stadium locations to identify teams’ counties, we analyze the number of births in counties of both winning and losing teams for 10 recent Super Bowls. We also test for state effects and general effects of the NFL playoffs. Overall, our results show no clear pattern of increases in the number of births in winning counties nine months after the Super Bowl. We also do not find that births are affected at the state level or that counties competing in the playoffs are affected. Altogether, these results cast doubt on the NFL’s claim that winning cities experience increases in births nine months after the Super Bowl.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2378023117718122

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2017

Journal Title

Socius

Author(s)

Hayward, George M.
Rybinska, Anna

PMCID

PMC5548444

ORCiD

Hayward, G. - 0000-0001-7614-5044
Rybinska - 0000-0002-6112-4256