Dan Johnson (economist)


Daniel Kent Neil Johnson is a Canadian-American microeconomist and entrepreneur. He is currently an associate professor in the economics department at Colorado College. His most notable research has been in predicting Olympic medals.

Research

Johnson's Olympic Medals Model uses five variables: country's per-capita income, population, political structure, climate, and host-nation advantage. The model does not take into account athletic abilities of any star Olympians. It has demonstrated 94% accuracy for predicting national medal counts and 87% accuracy for gold medal counts. Since 2000, Johnson's model has become increasingly more accurate at predicting the number of gold medals a country will win, while becoming marginally less accurate at predicting the total number of medals.
Johnson's other work is in microeconomic analysis, with emphasis on business development. He has worked in the areas of commodity analysis, technology growth, and innovation, among others.

Entrepreneurship

In 2012, Johnson formed BookCheetah, an online textbook trading service.

Selected publications