Feedback in Tournaments under Commitment Problems: The-ory and Experimental Evidence

Oliver Gürtler and Christine Harbring

Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems from Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze a principal's optimal feedback policy in tournaments. We close a gap in the literature by assuming the principal to be unable to commit to a certain policy at the beginning of the tournament. Our analysis shows that in equilibrium the principal reveals in-termediate information regarding the agents’ previous performances if these performances are not too different. Moreover, we investigate a situation where the principal is not able to credi-bly communicate her information. Having presented our formal analysis, we test these results using data from laboratory experiments. The experimental findings provide some support for the model.

Keywords: tournament; commitment problems; feedback; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D83 J33 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-10
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/13333/1/219.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Feedback in Tournaments under Commitment Problems: Theory and Experimental Evidence (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:trf:wpaper:219

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