PolybridgeSituation rooms
UpdatedAug 17, 3:02 PM PDT

The World Cup's Other Scoreboard

A World Cup result does not stop at the final whistle. Polybridge forecasts where it lands in the economy.

Exports if they win+0.8 to +0.8pp
Equity volatility

Headline readouts

ExportsLive odds propagated. Largest 90% export interval reaches +1.9pp. Top median lifts: Spain.
+0.8 to +0.8pp
VolatilityFixed aggregate volatility readout. Next-day interval: x1.05 to x1.27.
CalibrationHeld-out 90% coverage for export and volatility checks.
90.5% / 87.1%

Export Lift By Winner

Additional two-quarter export growth after a championship, in percentage points.

Spain

100.0% title odds, Champion

Manufactures export share73%
+0.8pp+0.07pp to +1.85pp

Equity Markets

Volatility response

The post-match volatility bump is outcome-independent: the market gets louder, but the result does not reliably pick a direction.
Next day

x1.05 to x1.27

1 week

x1.03 to x1.16

1 month

x0.82 to x1.18

Directional return response

Weakly-informative prior — the published Edmans-Garcia-Norli -0.5% elimination effect is folded in only weakly, so the WC data dominates. do(win) / do(loss) / do(elimination) all come out ~0: no reliable directional edge. Consistent with Gatto (2026), who finds no day-after return effect in liquid markets. Reported as a distribution.
Win~0

-9.9 bps to +14.0 bps

81.8% within +/-10 bps
Ordinary loss+18.0 bps

-1.8 bps to +38.0 bps

24.6% within +/-10 bps
Elimination~0

-27.0 bps to +19.3 bps

50.3% within +/-10 bps

How a Win Moves Through the Economy

The graph summarizes the evidence structure: prediction markets provide the football input, observed data fit the channels, and the room reads out exports and market volatility.

World Cup economic impact causal graph
Prediction-market odds enter as football inputs; observed data fit the channels; exports and volatility are the primary economic readouts.Literature anchors: Mello (2024) and Edmans, Garcia, and Norli (2007).