Who wins the paralympic medals? An analysis of the socio-economic determinants

Purpose While the Olympic Games are always under spotlight, Paralympic somehow ignored. This paper aims to invite general public think about para-athletes and differential treatments they received. Design/methodology/approach Among participating countries, many of them were unable win a single or medal. When dependent variable is left-censored, ordinary least squares regression asymptotically biased downwards. In literature, researchers typically employ maximum likelihood Tobit model take care censoring problem. However, some argue that Hurdle has an advantage over in identifying determinants winning medals. Following their wisdom, this employs both models analysis. Findings The empirical evidence gathered suggests population size, host status average years schooling big three socio-economic when it comes medals at Games. findings support hypothesis sports talent randomly distributed large country higher chance have talented athletes strong also showed up following Paralympics but was not so next Olympics. Originality/value only examines relationship between various social, economic political factors determining success nation attempts identify possible non-traditional determinants.