"Super Bowl Babies": Do Counties with Super Bowl Winning Teams Experience Increases in Births Nine Months Later?

Hayward, George M

Rybińska, Anna

2019-08-20T12:21:39Z

2019-08-20T12:21:39Z

2017-01

2019-08-20T12:21:38Z

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 ten 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.

2378-0231

2378-0231

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19223

eng

SAGE Publications

Socius : sociological research for a dynamic world

10.1177/2378023117718122

Super Bowl

birth rates

fertility

football

sporting events

"Super Bowl Babies": Do Counties with Super Bowl Winning Teams Experience Increases in Births Nine Months Later?

Journal article

237802311771812

237802311771812

Staff

Duke

Center for Child and Family Policy

Sanford School of Public Policy

Published

3