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The effort-maximizing contest with heterogeneous prizes

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  • Liu, Xuyuan
  • Lu, Jingfeng

Abstract

We establish the effort-maximizing rule of allocating heterogeneous prizes when contestants privately observe their effort efficiencies. With ex ante symmetric players and increasing virtual effort efficiency, an all pay auction maximizes the total expected effort.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Xuyuan & Lu, Jingfeng, 2014. "The effort-maximizing contest with heterogeneous prizes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 422-425.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:125:y:2014:i:3:p:422-425
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2014.10.026
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benny Moldovanu & Aner Sela, 2008. "The Optimal Allocation of Prizes in Contests," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Arye L. Hillman & Kai A. Konrad (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 1, pages 615-631, Springer.
    2. Moldovanu, Benny & Sela, Aner, 2006. "Contest architecture," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 70-96, January.
    3. Ando, Munetomo, 2004. "Division of a contest with identical prizes," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 282-297, June.
    4. Roger B. Myerson, 1981. "Optimal Auction Design," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 58-73, February.
    5. Fu, Qiang & Lu, Jingfeng, 2009. "The beauty of "bigness": On optimal design of multi-winner contests," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 146-161, May.
    6. René Kirkegaard, 2012. "A Mechanism Design Approach to Ranking Asymmetric Auctions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(5), pages 2349-2364, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrzej Baranski & Sumit Goel, 2024. "Contest design with a finite type-space: A unifying approach," Papers 2410.04970, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    2. Sumit Goel, 2022. "Optimal grading contests," Papers 2205.05207, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2024.
    3. Liu, Xuyuan & Lu, Jingfeng, 2017. "Optimal prize-rationing strategy in all-pay contests with incomplete information," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 57-90.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    All pay auction; Grand contest; Split contest; Subcontest; Virtual effort of efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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