CLEVELAND, Ohio -- LeBron James has a significant effect on the number of businesses and jobs around basketball arenas, according to new research.
More specifically, the number of eating and drinking establishments close to the arenas in Cleveland and Miami grew when James played on those teams. A working paper from the American Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan public policy research institute, found that with James present the number of these businesses increases 13 percent. The number of jobs present in this industry increases too, by 23 percent.
Researchers Stan Veuger, of the American Enterprise Institute, and Daniel Shoag of Harvard University -- from Cleveland originally -- tracked economic development near American Airlines Arena in Miami after James' move to the Heat, and then Quicken Loans Arena after he came back.