Sabotage in dynamic tournaments

Oliver Gürtler () and Johannes Münster ()
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Johannes Münster: Free University of Berlin

No 266, Discussion Papers from SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich

Abstract: This paper studies sabotage in a dynamic tournament. Three players compete in two rounds. In the final round, a player who is leading in the race, but not yet beyond the reach of his competitors, gets sabotaged more heavily. As a consequence, if players are at the same position initially, they do not work productively or sabotage at all in the first round. Thus sabotage is not only directly destructive, but also depresses incentives to work productively. If players are heterogeneous ex ante, sabotage activities in the first round may be concentrated against an underdog, contrary to findings from static tournaments. We also discuss the robustness of our results in a less stylized environment.

Keywords: dynamic tournaments; contests; sabotage; heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
Date: 2009-07
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