A simple dynamic contest with a parameterized strength of competition

This paper analyzes the effect of competition in a dynamic contest in which agents of two types (A and B) differ in their expected performances; environments where type A outperforms type B are more frequent than those where B outperforms A. In each period, the population of agents is randomly match...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: García-Martínez, José A.
Format: Article
Publication date:2018
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Repository:REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.umh.es:11000/38697
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11000/38697
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Contest
Competition
Strength of competition
Selection process
CDU::3 - Ciencias sociales::33 - Economía
Description
Summary:This paper analyzes the effect of competition in a dynamic contest in which agents of two types (A and B) differ in their expected performances; environments where type A outperforms type B are more frequent than those where B outperforms A. In each period, the population of agents is randomly matched in groups of n members (each group faces a particular environment), with the top performing agents from each group being the winners of the prizes. Hence, the ratio determines the proportion of winning agents in each group. This ratio also describes the strength of competition in the group: the lower is, the higher the level of competition is. Our results show that type A eventually dominates the entire population with moderate competition, but type B survives in the long run for high levels of competition. Hence, we obtain that no matter how low the expected success rate of a type is, if the strength of competition is high enough those agents with the lowest expected success rate survive in the long run.