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13. Population ≠ Success
In this episode, I walk through one of the foundational papers in sport economics:
Who Wins the Olympic Games? Economic Resources and Medal Totals
Andrew B. Bernard & Meghan R. Busse (2004)
Review of Economics and Statistics
The question is simple:
If Canada has roughly seven times the population of Finland, shouldn’t that show up proportionally in medal counts?
The intuitive answer is yes.
The data says otherwise.
In this episode we explore:
• Why population does not scale linearly with Olympic success
• What it means to model medals as a “production process”
• Why economists use the…
The skinny
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