Tournaments, Contestant Heterogeneity and Performance

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Brox, Enzo, Goller, Daniel
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Brox, Enzo
Goller, Daniel
author_facet Brox, Enzo
Goller, Daniel
contents Tournaments are frequently used incentive mechanisms to enhance performance. In this paper, we use field data and show that skill disparities among contestants asymmetrically affect the performance of contestants. Skill disparities have detrimental effects on the performance of the lower-ability contestant but positive effects on the performance of the higher-ability contestant. We discuss the potential of different behavioral approaches to explain our findings and discuss the implications of our results for the optimal design of contests. Beyond that, our study reveals two important empirical results: (a) affirmative action-type policies may help to mitigate the adverse effects on lower-ability contestants, and (b) the skill level of potential future contestants in subsequent tournament stages can detrimentally influence the performance of higher-ability contestants but does not affect the lower-ability contestant.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_05210
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tournaments, Contestant Heterogeneity and Performance
Brox, Enzo
Goller, Daniel
General Economics
Economics
Tournaments are frequently used incentive mechanisms to enhance performance. In this paper, we use field data and show that skill disparities among contestants asymmetrically affect the performance of contestants. Skill disparities have detrimental effects on the performance of the lower-ability contestant but positive effects on the performance of the higher-ability contestant. We discuss the potential of different behavioral approaches to explain our findings and discuss the implications of our results for the optimal design of contests. Beyond that, our study reveals two important empirical results: (a) affirmative action-type policies may help to mitigate the adverse effects on lower-ability contestants, and (b) the skill level of potential future contestants in subsequent tournament stages can detrimentally influence the performance of higher-ability contestants but does not affect the lower-ability contestant.
title Tournaments, Contestant Heterogeneity and Performance
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.05210