World Cup 2002 Masterclass

Stefan Symanski delivered a topical and entertaining lecture to a large audience on the economic impact of the World Cup for Japan and South Korea.

Stefan Symanski delivered a topical and entertaining lecture to a large audience on the economic impact of the World Cup for Japan and South Korea and possible repercussions for other major sporting events.

Szymanski has been vociferous in the press recently, arguing that any economic advantage is both hugely overestimated and short lived. The 'impact of winning' cannot sadly be measured using any statistical model.

The lecture was concluded with Stefan's predictions for the outcome of the world cup. Using the size of a country's GDP and population to predict the winners (which is very accurate for Olympic gold medals and was 70% effective at the midway point of the World Cup - it can't predict draws), the final result was set to be somewhat surprising - with the USA beating Japan...

Stefan Szymanski is a Reader in Economics at the Imperial College Management School.