Treich, Nicolas and Liu, Linqun (2019) Optimality of Winner-Take-All Contests: The Role of Attitudes toward Risk. TSE Working Paper, n. 19-1060, Toulouse

[thumbnail of wp_tse_1060.pdf]
Preview
Text
Download (427kB) | Preview

Abstract

It has been established in the literature that, under the assumption of risk-neutral contestants, it is usually optimal for an effort-maximizing contest organizer with a fixed prize budget to award everything to a single winner. This paper studies the role of risk attitudes – risk aversion and prudence in particular – in determining the optimality of winner-take-all contests. We compare the typical single-winner lottery contest with two alternative ways of spreading the rewards to more players: through holding multiple prize-giving lottery competitions or through guaranteeing a bottom prize for the losers. In the first comparison, we found that the multiple-competition contest is as effective as the winner-take-all contest when the contestants are risk neutral, but the former induces more effort than the latter when the contestants are both risk averse and prudent. In the second comparison, we found that the contest with a bottom prize is always dominated by the winner-take-all contest when the contestants are risk neutral, but the former could have an advantage over the latter when the contestants are both risk averse and prudent, and it is more likely so as the contestants become more prudent.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Language: English
Date: December 2019
Place of Publication: Toulouse
Uncontrolled Keywords: contests, winner take all, multiple prizes, risk aversion, prudence
JEL Classification: C72 - Noncooperative Games
D72 - Economic Models of Political Processes - Rent-Seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
D81 - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Subjects: B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
Divisions: TSE-R (Toulouse)
Institution: Université Toulouse Capitole
Site: UT1
Date Deposited: 15 Jan 2020 15:35
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2021 13:37
OAI Identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:123842
URI: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/33626
View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year