The Effect of Government Investment inSports on Economic Growth in Iran

Sports and recreations as a forward industry play direct and indirect roles in national development processes. Sport increases the level of social health، reduces health care expenditure، and raises employment. It increases economic growth by incoming capital flows. Currently، sports and recreation activities industry is of main and influential influence on economic growth in the developed countries. Many countries have paved economic growth path with constructing infrastructure for global and continental events. In Iran، the presence of government in sport sector is very sensible. This paper examines the effect of government investment in sports on economic growth in Iran over the post-Revolution period (1979-2010). To this end، an Auto Regressive Distributed Lag method (ARDL) model is used. Estimation results show that government investment in sport has no significant effect on economic growth. Hence، it is recommended that government would invest in infrastructure and education related to sports for creation of public and professional sports with high efficiency.