• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Optimal accuracy of unbiased tullock contests with two heterogeneous players
  • Contributor: Sahm, Marco [Author]
  • Published: Basel: MDPI, 2022
  • Language: English
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/g13020024
  • ISSN: 2073-4336
  • Keywords: heterogeneous valuations ; all-pay auction ; Tullock contest ; accuracy ; discrimination ; optimal design ; D72 ; C72
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  • Description: I characterize the optimal accuracy level r of an unbiased Tullock contest between two players with heterogeneous prize valuations. The designer maximizes the winning probability of the strong player or the winner's expected valuation by choosing a contest with an all-pay auction equilibrium (rÏ2). By contrast, if she aims at maximizing the expected aggregate effort or the winner's expected effort, she will choose a contest with a pure-strategy equilibrium, and the optimal accuracy level r<2 decreases in the players' heterogeneity. Finally, a contest designer who faces a tradeoff between selection quality and minimum (maximum) effort will never choose a contest with a semi-mixed equilibrium.
  • Access State: Open Access
  • Rights information: Attribution (CC BY)