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Men, Money, And Medals: An Econometric Analysis Of The Olympic Games

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  • Hon‐Kwong Lui
  • Wing Suen

Abstract

. Population size and the level of income per capita are major determinants of the number of medals won by a country in the 1952–2004 Olympic Games. A parsimonious count (Poisson) model fits the data very well: the squared correlation between the predicted value of the number of medals won and the observed value is about 56%. There exist strong country‐specific effects in Olympic medals results. While the USA and China tend to outperform other countries relative to their size and income, the Asian dragons tend to under‐perform in the Games.

Suggested Citation

  • Hon‐Kwong Lui & Wing Suen, 2008. "Men, Money, And Medals: An Econometric Analysis Of The Olympic Games," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:pacecr:v:13:y:2008:i:1:p:1-16
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0106.2007.00386.x
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Who will win the Olympics?
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2008-08-08 12:05:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Marcus Noland & Kevin Stahler, 2016. "Asian Participation and Performance at the Olympic Games," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 11(1), pages 70-90, January.
    2. Schlembach, Christoph & Schmidt, Sascha L. & Schreyer, Dominik & Wunderlich, Linus, 2022. "Forecasting the Olympic medal distribution – A socioeconomic machine learning model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    3. Franklin G. Mixon Jr. & Richard J. Cebula, 2022. "Property Rights Freedom and Innovation: Eponymous Skills in Women's Gymnastics," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(4), pages 407-430, May.
    4. Vagenas, George & Vlachokyriakou, Eleni, 2012. "Olympic medals and demo-economic factors: Novel predictors, the ex-host effect, the exact role of team size, and the “population-GDP” model revisited," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 211-217.
    5. Marcus Noland & Kevin Stahler, 2017. "An Old Boys Club No More," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(5), pages 506-536, June.
    6. Marcus Noland & Kevin Stahler, 2016. "What Goes into a Medal: Women's Inclusion and Success at the Olympic Games," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 97(2), pages 177-196, June.
    7. Caroline Buts & Cind Du Bois & Bruno Heyndels & Marc Jegers, 2013. "Socioeconomic Determinants of Success at the Summer Paralympics," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(2), pages 133-147, April.
    8. Henseke, Golo, 2009. "Country performance at the International Mathematical Olympiad," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 108, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    9. Frank Butter & Casper Tak, 1995. "Olympic medals as an indicator of social welfare," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 27-37, May.
    10. Pedro Garcia‐del‐Barrio & Carlos Gomez‐Gonzalez & José Manuel Sánchez‐Santos, 2020. "Popularity and Visibility Appraisals for Computing Olympic Medal Rankings," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2137-2157, September.
    11. Škorić Sanela & Obadić Evica, 2022. "Connection between State Funding and International Sporting Success: The Case of Croatia," Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 25(2), pages 119-138.
    12. Christian Pierdzioch & Eike Emrich, 2013. "A Note on Corruption and National Olympic Success," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 41(4), pages 405-411, December.
    13. Marcus Noland, 2016. "Russian Doping in Sports," Working Paper Series WP16-4, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    14. Carl Singleton & J. James Reade & Johan Rewilak & Dominik Schreyer, 2021. "How big is home advantage at the Olympic Games?," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2021-13, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    15. Martin Grancay & Tomas Dudas, 2018. "Olympic Medals, Economy, Geography and Politics from Sydney to Rio," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 22(2), pages 409-441, Spring.
    16. Darryl P Leong & Martin McKee & Salim Yusuf & on behalf of PURE Investigators, 2017. "Population Muscle Strength Predicts Olympic Medal Tallies: Evidence from 20 Countries in the PURE Prospective Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, January.
    17. Forrest, David & Sanz, Ismael & Tena, J.D., 2010. "Forecasting national team medal totals at the Summer Olympic Games," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 576-588, July.
    18. Loek Groot, 2012. "An Olympic Level Playing Field? The Contest for Olympic Success as a Public Good," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 55(2), pages 25-50.

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