Does Affirmative Action Reduce Effort Incentives? A Contest Game Analysis

Jörg Franke

UFAE and IAE Working Papers from Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC)

Abstract: In this paper a contest game with heterogeneous players is analyzed in which heterogeneity could be the consequence of past discrimination. Based on the normative perception of the heterogeneity there are two policy options to tackle this heterogeneity: either it is ignored and the contestants are treated equally, or affirmative action is implemented which compensates discriminated players. The consequences of these two policy options are analyzed for a simple two-person contest game and it is shown that the frequently criticized trade-off between affirmative action and total effort does not exist: Instead, affirmative action fosters effort incentives. A generalization to the n-person case and to a case with a partially informed contest designer yields the same result if the participation level is similar under each policy.

Keywords: Asymmetric contest; affirmative action; discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D63 I38 J78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2007-07-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm and nep-gth
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Does Affirmative Action Reduce Effort Incentives? – A Contest Game Analysis (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aub:autbar:711.07

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