Hj Holm
Vicerektor forskarutbildning, Professor
Grind or Gamble? : An Experimental Analysis of Effort and Spread Seeking in Contests
Författare
Summary, in English
We conduct a contest experiment where participants can invest in increasing both the mean and the spread of an uncertain performance variable. Subjects are treated with different prize schemes and in accordance with theory we observe substantial investments in spread. We find that both types of investments can be controlled with a three level prize scheme. However, the control is imperfect and behavior is characterized by inertia. The winner-take-all prize scheme has many disadvantages including high spread and heterogeneous behavior. The scheme where only one loser is punished appears superior; it generates high mean, low spread and is most popular.
Avdelning/ar
- Nationalekonomiska institutionen
Publiceringsår
2016-12-30
Språk
Engelska
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Working Papers
Volym
2016
Issue
37
Länkar
Dokumenttyp
Working paper
Förlag
Department of Economics, Lund University
Ämne
- Economics
Nyckelord
- contest
- risk
- spread
- incentives
- institutional choice
- experiment
- C70
- D02
- D03
- D80
Status
Published