Australia is expected to win one more gold than it did four years ago, taking its total to 15.
The report's authors, Jose Ursua and Kamakshya Trivedi, said it seemed like a "daft question" to consider if economic variables could predict Olympic success.
"It is hard to imagine that economic variables could even begin to capture the kind of individual skill, mental determination and hunger that drive athletes to perform feats of unimaginable virtuosity that is the stuff of Olympic legends. But at the level of a country, it may be possible to identify the ingredients that unlock success at the Games."
See more data from Goldman Sachs here.
The pair used "growth environment scores" (GES), which are "designed to capture important features of the economic, political and institutional environment that affect productivity performance and growth across countries".
"And, indeed, this is what we find: gold does go where the growth environment is superior," the report says.
They made predictions using old GES of how many gold medals countries should have won at previous Olympic Games and when compared to the actual tally they were a "perfect forecast".
Goldman Sachs said there were two clear patterns revealed in their analysis.
"First, countries with superior growth environments and higher incomes are expected to win more medals, and, second, there is also a marked host effect that will likely bump up the number of medals attained by Great Britain," the report says.
New Zealand is expected to win two extra bronze or silver medals than in 2008, taking its Games total to 11.
"Our estimates also predict that the top 10 ranks will include five G7 countries (the US, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy), two BRICs (China and Russia), one N11 country (South Korea), and one additional developed and emerging market (Australia and Ukraine, respectively). Based on our analysis, these 10 countries will likely capture more than half of all medals attained during the Games."
The rest of the countries in the list are a diverse mix from various parts of the world, broadly led by Europeans and including Asian, Latin American and African nations.
Goldman Sachs says while it hopes its predictions are accurate, "we will have succeeded as long as they have provided some food for thought".
