On the determinants of sporting success – A note on the Olympic Games

We analyzed whether, in democratic open societies, economic and demographic conditions allow sporting success at the aggregate level to be predicted. Theoretical considerations led to the hypothesis that the population size and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita should be important determinants...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomics bulletin Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 1890 - 1901
Main Authors Emrich, Eike, Klein, Markus, Pitsch, Werner, Pierdzioch, Christian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published AccessEcon 2012
SeriesEconomics Bulletin
Subjects
GDP per capita
Olympic Games
political economy
population size
sporting success
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Summary:We analyzed whether, in democratic open societies, economic and demographic conditions allow sporting success at the aggregate level to be predicted. Theoretical considerations led to the hypothesis that the population size and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita should be important determinants of sporting success. Using regression analysis, we analyzed the influence of population size and GDP per capita on sporting success in Olympic Summer and Winter Games (1992 – 2010). Regarding the Olympic summer games, we found that the most powerful predictor is population size. In contrast, GDP per capita seems to play an important role as a predictor of sporting success with respect to the Olympic winter games.
ISSN:1545-2921
1545-2921