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Incentive effects of tournament size optimization on local officials in China

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  • Yu, Jixiang
  • Shen, Kunrong

Abstract

This study proposes a simple economic intuition that the efficacy of tournaments closely correlates with the number of individuals participating in the competition. Precisely, tournaments with too few (too many) contestants are not conducive to stimulating efforts because of windfalls (sure failure). We modeled the ideas mentioned above and presented the significance of a moderately sized tournament in stimulating individual efforts. As local officials in China are involved in tournament, their efforts differ with the number of those competing with each other. By assessing the exogenous impact of the adjustment of prefecture-level administrative divisions on the tournament size of intercounty competition, the empirical results of this study align with the theoretical expectations.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu, Jixiang & Shen, Kunrong, 2022. "Incentive effects of tournament size optimization on local officials in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:83:y:2022:i:c:s1049007822001051
    DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2022.101549
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tournament scale; Local officials; Individual efforts; Incentive effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

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