Spain supporters react after Spain's Fernando Torres missed a scoring opportunity against Italy as they watch the Group C Euro 2012 soccer match on a giant screen at the port in Malaga, southern Spain, June 10, 2012.(Agencies) |
Tired of the constant barrage of depressing headlines from the eurozone debt crisis, German economists have turned their skills to the rather more fun task of forecasting the European Championships. Using a variety of tongue-in-cheek models usually applied to complex questions of bond markets or credit default swaps, most analysts have ended up with far from earth-shattering tips, backing favourites Spain or Germany. The good news for people concerned for the future of the euro area is that the chances of a team from the 17-nation zone lifting Europe's premier football trophy is a whopping 86 percent, according to economists at DekaBank. Analysing the results of the past four European Championships and feeding it into a complex mathematical model, the economists came up with the prediction: "Along with Spain and the Netherlands, Germany is one of the favourites." In a research note entitled "Soccernomics", boffins at ABN Amro said their work was done with a "quasi-serious approach." "Because after all, football is the most important of all unimportant things. We certainly need some light relief these days. Europe -- in particular the eurozone -- has been engulfed in a crisis for two years now," they added. ABN Amro cross-checked a country's footballing record with its credit rating and concluded that Germany would be triumphant come the final of Europe's top footballing competition on July 1. For the eurozone as a whole, however, the research note concludes: "From an economic perspective, the best outcome would be a French victory" as it would boost confidence in one of the shakiest "core" eurozone nations. Economists at UniCredit really went to town, feeding in macroeconomic data to complex mathematical models in a bid to predict the winner. They calculated the worth of each individual team based on the transfer market value of their players and decided that the two semi-finals would be "genuine classics" pitting traditional rivals against each other. "Portugal (338 million euros) against Spain (658 million euros) and Germany (459 million euros) against England (392 million euros)" was the final prediction. (Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
德國經(jīng)濟學家為不斷傳來的歐債危機壞消息疲倦不已。今年歐洲杯開賽后,他們把自己的經(jīng)濟技巧應用于更加有趣的工作:預測歐洲杯冠軍。 他們半開玩笑地使用多種經(jīng)濟模型進行預測,這些經(jīng)濟模型通常用于債券市場或信用違約掉期等復雜問題。多數(shù)經(jīng)濟學家經(jīng)過預測得出結(jié)論稱,西班牙隊和德國隊是奪冠熱門。 德國德卡銀行經(jīng)濟學家預測稱,冠軍來自于17個歐元區(qū)國家的可能性高達86%。這對于關(guān)心歐元區(qū)的人們來說是個好消息。 經(jīng)濟學家分析了過去四屆歐洲杯的賽事結(jié)果,并將其輸入到一個復雜的數(shù)學模型里,從而得出預測結(jié)果稱,“和西班牙、荷蘭一樣,德國隊是奪冠熱門?!?/p> 在題目為“足球經(jīng)濟學”的研究記錄中,荷蘭銀行的研究人員說,他們的研究工作是以“半嚴肅的方式”進行的。 他們補充說:“因為不管怎么說,足球還是很重要的。我們現(xiàn)在當然需要一些輕松的場面。歐洲,特別是歐元區(qū),已經(jīng)被危機困擾兩年了?!?/p> 荷蘭銀行反復核對了一個國家足球隊的比賽成績和該國的信用等級,得出結(jié)論稱,在7月1日的歐洲杯決賽中,德國隊將獲得冠軍。 但對整個歐元區(qū)來說,研究記錄稱:“從經(jīng)濟的角度看,最好的結(jié)果是法國隊奪冠”,因為法國被視作歐元區(qū)最不穩(wěn)定的“核心”國家之一,而奪冠將大幅提振民眾信心。 聯(lián)合信貸銀行的經(jīng)濟學家也大干了一番,把宏觀經(jīng)濟數(shù)據(jù)輸入復雜的數(shù)學模型,以期預測奪冠球隊。 他們根據(jù)球員的轉(zhuǎn)會身價,計算出了每支球隊的總價值,認為最終的兩場半決賽將在“真正的一流球隊”之間展開,傳統(tǒng)的對手球隊將會狹路相逢。 最終的預測結(jié)果為,葡萄牙隊(價值3.38億歐元)對陣西班牙隊(6.58億歐元),德國隊(4.59億歐元)對陣英格蘭隊(3.92億歐元)。 相關(guān)閱讀 (中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Julie 編輯:陳丹妮) |
Vocabulary: tongue-in-cheek: 半開玩笑的,不當真的 earth-shattering: 驚天動地的,極其重大的 boffin: 研究員,科學工作者 light relief: 輕松場面,滑稽場面 go to town: 大干一番 pit: 使相斗,使對立,使競爭 |