Jim O'Neill, Columnist

An Introduction to World Cup Economics

World Cup wins are such momentous events that they've been known to give economies a lift.

April 23, 2014 at 9:07 PM UTC

Jim O'Neill worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from 1995 until 2013, serving most recently as chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and as the firm's chief economist from 2001 to 2011. Before joining Goldman Sachs, he was head of global research at Swiss Bank Corp. O'Neill is the creator of the BRIC acronym, which was derived from his thesis that Brazil, Russia, India and China would dominate growth in emerging markets. He is a member of the boards of the Brussels-based policy-research centers Itinera Institute and Bruegel. He earned a degree in economics from Sheffield University in 1978 and a doctorate from the University of Surrey in 1982. He lives in London.

Doing their bit to help the economy. Photographer: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images — Doing their bit to help the economy. Photographer: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

For hundreds of millions of people across the planet, soccer is the sport that matters most, and the World Cup, contested every four years, is the greatest sporting event, bar none. Yes, there's the Olympics, if you insist -- but that isn't a single contest yielding a single champion, so it doesn't count. Let's not bother to pretend otherwise. This is the World Cup, it starts in less than two months, and nothing else comes close.

This year's host is Brazil, which raises an interesting question for a soccer obsessive with a sideline in economic analysis such as myself. World Cup wins are such momentous events that they've been known to give economies a fillip -- especially when the host country wins. Brazil can plausibly claim to be the world's most successful footballing nation, and it has a pretty good chance of winning its sixth title this year. It also has a troubled economy, capable of being lifted by another great victory -- or emotionally crushed if it does badly.