Facing Your Opponents: Social identification and information feedback in contests

Shakun Mago, Anya Savikhin and Roman Sheremeta
Additional contact information
Anya Savikhin: Becker Friedman Institute for Economic Research, The University of Chicago, USA
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Anya Savikhin Samek

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: We experimentally investigate the effect of social identification and information feedback on individual behavior in contests. Identifying subjects through photo display decreases efforts. Providing information feedback about others’ effort does not affect the aggregate effort levels but it does change the dynamics of individual behavior. We develop a behavioral model based on relative payoff maximization, and use it to estimate the degree of pro-social/status-seeking behavior. We find that decrease in ‘social distance’ between group members through photo display promotes pro-social behavior. Information feedback reduces the within-group volatility in effort level and facilitates greater adherence to the ‘group norm.’ Finally, in contrast to standard theoretical predictions, we find significant over-expenditure of efforts in all treatments. This overdissipation can be explained by a combination of non-monetary utility of winning and relative payoff maximization.

Keywords: contest; information; identification; over-dissipation; experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 D72 D74 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (65)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.chapman.edu/research-and-institutions/e ... g-your-opponents.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Facing Your Opponents: Social Identification and Information Feedback in Contests (2014)
Working Paper: Facing Your Opponents: Social Identification and Information Feedback in Contests (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:12-15

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Megan Luetje ().