A General Framework for Studying Contests

Spencer Bastani, Thomas Giebe and Oliver Gürtler ()
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Oliver Gürtler: Department of Economics, University of Cologne, Germany
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Oliver Gürtler

No 5, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: We develop a general framework for studying contests, including the well-known models of Tullock(1980) and Lazear & Rosen (1981) as special cases. The contest outcome depends on players’ efforts and skills, the latter being subject to symmetric uncertainty. The model is tractable, because asymmetric equilibrium exists under general assumptions regarding production technologies and skill distributions. Using a link between our contest model and expected utility theory, we are able to derive new comparative statics results regarding how the size and composition of contests affect equilibrium effort, showing how standard results can be overturned. We also discuss the robustness ofour results to changes in the information structure and the implications of our findings for the optimal design of teams.

Keywords: contest theory; symmetric equilibrium; heterogeneity; risk; stochastic dominance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D74 D81 J23 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mic, nep-ore and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_005_2020.pdf First version, 2020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Simple equilibria in general contests (2022)
Working Paper: A general framework for studying contests (2020)
Working Paper: A General Framework for Studying Contests (2019)
Working Paper: A general framework for studying contests (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:005

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