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Comparing Olympic Gold Medalss And GDP

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Abstract: This paper looks at how Olympic gold medals and GDP are correlated to each other. I researched the GDP per capita as well as the Olympic gold medals for each Olympic year for twelve separate countries. I made the Olympic gold medals the independent variable and the GDP the dependent variable and calculated the R2 value for each Olympic year from 1988 to 2012 to demonstrate the correlation. My hypothesis was to prove that these two are positively correlated. Unfortunately, I discovered that the two are ever so vaguely correlated, if correlated at all, based on my data collection and results.
Introduction:
It has been said that looking at a countries economic stance can help predict Olympic outcome results. Countries that have a …show more content…

Certain countries are starting to show declining trends in the total Olympic gold medals, such as the United States. This source shows the GDP as a percentage to a whole, or the specific country’s contribution to the total GDP that year. Also, they compare gold medals as a percentage of available medals, not just the number won, flat. “The U.S. won 37% of the gold medals in 1984, but only 12% of the available medals in 2008. As other nations are becoming economic superpowers, the U.S. has a smaller portion of the worldwide GDP. The U.S. had 35% of the worldwide GDP back in 1985 but only 22% in 2012.” This is showing a negative correlation between GDP and gold medals.
Alternatively, if we look at China, their gold medal count has increased, as has the share of the worldwide GDP. Investopia states that in 1984, China won 7% of the available gold medals and in 2008, they won 17% of the gold medals; China’s GDP contribution increased from 2% in 1985 to above 10% in 2012. However, this article does not seem to mention the Olympic boycott that happened in 1976, 1980, and 1984. The main boycotting countries were the United States and the Soviet Union in different years, causing each of these leading countries to earn more gold medals when the other country did not …show more content…

While looking at a country’s different sport strengths is one way to predict Olympic performance, investigating their socioeconomic variables, such as population size, hosting advantage, and economic resources, is another way. He goes further into explaining the two models he used to measure the relationship.
He uses two different models, the linear function and the Cobb-Douglas production function to estimate the influence of the economic factors on a nations’ Olympic performance. He predicted that the population size and ecomonic resources are positively correlated with Olympic medal count and that being a socialist or hosting country also increases medal count. Bian is using the Cobb-Douglas model to show a better prediction if the diminishing marginal return of population size and economic resources did in fact

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