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Persuasion as a Contest

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Author Info
Stergios Skaperdas () (University of California Irvine)
Samarth Vaidya () (Deakin University)

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Abstract

We examine how the probability of persuading an audience depends on resources expended by contending parties. We use a Bayesian approach whereby the audience makes inferences solely based on the evidence produced by the constants. We find conditions that yield the well-known additive contest success functions, including the logit function. We also find conditions that produce a generalized "difference" functional form. In all cases, there are three main determinants of audience choice: (i) the truth and other objective parameters of the environment; (ii) the biases of the audience; and (iii) the resources expended by the interested parties.

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File URL: http://www.deakin.edu.au/buslaw/aef/workingpapers/papers/2008_07eco.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Deakin University, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance in its series Economics Series with number 2008_07.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: 16 Oct 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:dkn:econwp:eco_2008_07

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Related research
Keywords: rent-seeking; advertising; litigation; political campaigning; property rights;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General

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    Other versions:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Enrico Spolaore, 2008. "Civil conflict and secessions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 45-63, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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