First-mover advantage in best-of series: an experimental comparison of role-assignment rules

Bradley Ruffle and Oscar Volij ()

International Journal of Game Theory, 2016, vol. 45, issue 4, No 8, 933-970

Abstract: Abstract Kingston (J Comb Theory (A) 20:357–363, 1976) and Anderson (J Comb Theory (A) 23:363, 1977) show that the probability that a given contestant wins a best-of- $$2k+1$$ 2 k + 1 series of asymmetric, zero-sum, binary-outcome games is, for a large class of assignment rules, independent of which contestant is assigned the advantageous role in each component game. We design a laboratory experiment to test this hypothesis for four simple role-assignment rules. Despite significant differences in the frequency of equilibrium play across the four assignment rules, our results show that the four rules are observationally equivalent at the series level: the fraction of series won by a given contestant and all other series outcomes do not differ across rules.

Keywords: Experimental economics; Two-sided competitions; Best-of series; Asymmetric game; Psychological pressure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D02 L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: First-Mover Advantage in Best-Of-Series: An Experiment Comparison of Role-Assignment Rules (2014)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00182-015-0493-7

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