Experimental Research on Contests

Roman Sheremeta

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: Costly competitions between economic agents are modeled as contests. Researchers use laboratory experiments to study contests and test comparative static predictions of contest theory. Commonly, researchers find that participants’ efforts are significantly higher than predicted by the standard Nash equilibrium. Despite overbidding, most comparative static predictions, such as the incentive effect, the size effect, the discouragement effect and others are supported in the laboratory. In addition, experimental studies examine various contest structures, including dynamic contests (such as multi-stage races, wars of attrition, tug-of-wars), multi-dimensional contests (such as Colonel Blotto games), and contests between groups. This article provides a short review of such studies.

Keywords: Contest; All-pay auction; Tournament; Dynamic Contest; Multi-battle Contest; Multidimensional Contest; Group Contest; Rent-seeking; Experiment; Overbidding; Over-dissipation; Incentive Effect; Size Effect; Discouragement Effect; Strategic Momentum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C7 C9 D4 D7 D9 H4 J4 K4 L2 M5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-gth and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/245/

Related works:
Working Paper: Experimental Research on Contests (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:18-07

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