Perceived Market Value of Governmental Investment on Elite Sport Development in South Korea

Abstract

By utilizing the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), this study aims to calculate the Korean citizens’ willingness to pay (WTP) for elite athlete development and to determine whether a difference exists between the general public’s WTP and the government’s investment in the cause. The WTP per household was 15.82 USD. Multiplying the aforementioned figure by the number of households in Korea in 2020, we estimated that the total annual benefits of national athlete training support are 322.801million USD. After the survey on the WTP for the research participants, then adjusting for the income tax paid during 2021–2025 to the price level of 2019, the economic benefit of elite athlete development was calculated to be 1.354 billion USD for 30 years, and 86.869 million USD when converted to an annual basis. The 2019 national athletes training cost supported by the government, which is 61.652 million USD, was compared with the result of this study, 86.869 million USD. As a result, the benefits of training national representatives are estimated to be about 1.4 times higher than the national athletes training cost of sports supported by the government. This study makes significant contributions in that it is the first study in Korea to estimate the value of national athlete training support as a quantified basis based on quantitative analysis, unlike previous qualitative analysis of tentative policies.