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Contest Design And Optimal Endogenous Entry

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  • QIANG FU
  • JINGFENG LU

Abstract

This paper derives the effort‐maximizing contest rule and the optimal endogenous entry in a context where potential participants bear fixed entry costs. The organizer is allowed to design the contest under a fixed budget with two strategic instruments: the value of the prize purse and a monetary transfer (entry subsidy/fee) to each participating contestant. The results show that the optimally designed contest attracts exactly two participating contestants in its unique subgame perfect equilibrium and extracts all the surplus from participating contestants. The direction (subsidy or fee) and amount of the monetary transfer depend on the magnitude of the entry cost. (JEL C7, D7)

Suggested Citation

  • Qiang Fu & Jingfeng Lu, 2010. "Contest Design And Optimal Endogenous Entry," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 80-88, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:48:y:2010:i:1:p:80-88
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2008.00135.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Franke, Jörg & Kanzow, Christian & Leininger, Wolfgang & Schwartz, Alexandra, 2014. "Lottery versus all-pay auction contests: A revenue dominance theorem," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 116-126.
    2. Ta, Chi L., 2024. "Do conservation contests work? An analysis of a large-scale energy competitive rebate program," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Martin Grossmann, 2021. "Entry regulations and optimal prize allocation in parallel contests," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 25(4), pages 289-316, December.
    4. Giebe, Thomas, 2014. "Innovation contests with entry auction," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 165-176.
    5. Boris Ginzburg, 2021. "Optimal Price Of Entry Into A Competition," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 280-286, January.
    6. Thomas, Jonathan P. & Wang, Zhewei, 2013. "Optimal punishment in contests with endogenous entry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 34-50.
    7. Jean-François Mercier, 2018. "Selecting contestants for a rent-seeking contest," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 47(3), pages 927-947, September.
    8. Boosey, Luke & Brookins, Philip & Ryvkin, Dmitry, 2017. "Contests with group size uncertainty: Experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 212-229.
    9. Gu, Yiquan & Hehenkamp, Burkhard & Leininger, Wolfgang, 2019. "Evolutionary equilibrium in contests with stochastic participation: Entry, effort and overdissipation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 469-485.
    10. Fu, Qiang & Lu, Jingfeng & Lu, Yuanzhu, 2012. "Incentivizing R&D: Prize or subsidies?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 67-79.
    11. Robert Ridlon, 2016. "Does Manufacturer Advertising Crowd‐in or Crowd‐out Retailer Advertising? An Application of an Endogenous Prize Contest with Asymmetric Players," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(2), pages 364-379, October.
    12. Dmitry Ryvkin & Mikhail Drugov, 2017. "Tournaments," Working Papers wp2017_03_02, Department of Economics, Florida State University.
    13. Gu, Yiquan & Hehenkamp, Burkhard & Leininger, Wolfgang, 2017. "The Dark Side of the Force: Evolutionary Equilibrium in Contests with Stochastic Entry," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168168, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Liqun Liu & Jack Meyer & Andrew J. Rettenmaier & Thomas R. Saving, 2018. "Risk and risk aversion effects in contests with contingent payments," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 289-305, June.
    15. Martin Grossmann, 2021. "Asymmetric Opportunities After an Unsuccessful Sports Career," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(5), pages 587-612, June.
    16. Drugov, Mikhail & Ryvkin, Dmitry, 2017. "Winner-Take-All Tournaments," CEPR Discussion Papers 12067, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Jiao, Qian & Ke, Changxia & Liu, Yang, 2022. "When to disclose the number of contestants: Theory and experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 146-160.
    18. Luke Boosey & Philip Brookins & Dmitry Ryvkin, 2020. "Information Disclosure in Contests with Endogenous Entry: An Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(11), pages 5128-5150, November.
    19. Grossmann, Martin & Dietl, Helmut, 2015. "Heterogeneous outside options in contests," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 280-287.
    20. Dongryul Lee & Joon Song, 2019. "Optimal Team Contests to Induce More Efforts," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(3), pages 448-476, April.
    21. Aycinena, Diego & Rentschler, Lucas, 2019. "Entry in contests with incomplete information: Theory and experiments," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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