Everyone is a Winner: Promoting Cooperation through All-Can-Win Intergroup Competition

Ernesto Reuben and Jean-Robert Tyran

No 4112, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We test if cooperation is promoted by rank-order competition between groups in which all groups can be ranked first, i.e. when everyone can be a winner. This type of rank-order competition has the advantage that it can eliminate the negative externality a group's performance imposes on other groups. However, it has the disadvantage that incentives to outperform others are absent if groups perform at the same level and it therefore does not eliminate low-cooperation equilibria. We find that all-can-win competition produces a universal increase in cooperation and benefits a majority of individuals if incentives to compete are strong.

Keywords: public goods; cooperation; intergroup competition; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 H41 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2009-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-pbe and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: European Journal of Political Economy, 2010, 26 (1), 25-35

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Related works:
Journal Article: Everyone is a winner: Promoting cooperation through all-can-win intergroup competition (2010)
Working Paper: Everyone Is A Winner: Promoting Cooperation Through Non-Rival Intergroup Competition (2008)
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