Brazil wins the world cup... according to Bloomberg, 171 economists, and Goldman Sachs. They beat Spain, Germany, or Argentina in the final respectively but as one survey participant noted, "It’s kind of hard to bet against Brazil -- they have home advantage, the climate, crowd and recent record." Goldman's 'model' implies a 48.5% chance that Brazil wins it all (with Argentina 2nd most likely to win at 14.1%). While all eyes will be on Ronaldo, Goldman's Dream Team is dominated by 3 Brazilians (including Neymar of course) but based on the 6-factor Poisson distribution-based regression model, Goldman predicts the scores of every game (and Bloomberg's interactive graphics allow to create your own bracket). If only the Brazilian people were so certain about their futures...
As Bloomberg reports,
Brazil will beat Germany to win soccer’s World Cup and also will score the most goals, according to a survey of economists across 52 countries.
The tournament’s host nation eclipsed Germany and Argentina as the top choice among 171 economists from 139 companies in a Bloomberg News poll published today.
“It’s kind of hard to bet against Brazil -- they have home advantage, the climate, crowd and recent record,” said Peter Dixon, a poll participant and global equities economist at Commerzbank AG in London. “It’s pretty obvious if you look at Brazil’s soccer rankings who should win.”
The predictions for the World Cup winner centered almost exclusively on Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Spain. Of the 171 responses, only six economists diverged from that trend, with three choosing Portugal, two backing Italy and one Uruguay.
Here is Bloomberg's prediction bracket (click image for link to interactive version)..
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And Goldman's predicted group results...
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And knockout round...
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With Brazil by far the favorites...
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Which is no surprise given 3 of them make the Dream Team this year...
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Full Goldman Sachs World Cup report below: