Grind or Gamble? : An Experimental Analysis of Effort and Spread Seeking in Contests
(2016) In Working Papers 2016(37).- Abstract
- 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.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/347caefa-f4e3-4321-8ee7-5ef70d7aabd6
- author
- Andersson, Ola LU ; Holm, Håkan J. LU and Wengström, Erik LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016-12-30
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- contest, risk, spread, incentives, institutional choice, experiment, C70, D02, D03, D80
- in
- Working Papers
- volume
- 2016
- issue
- 37
- pages
- 66 pages
- publisher
- Department of Economics, Lund University
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 347caefa-f4e3-4321-8ee7-5ef70d7aabd6
- date added to LUP
- 2017-01-17 15:26:18
- date last changed
- 2024-09-05 21:15:37
@misc{347caefa-f4e3-4321-8ee7-5ef70d7aabd6, abstract = {{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.}}, author = {{Andersson, Ola and Holm, Håkan J. and Wengström, Erik}}, keywords = {{contest; risk; spread; incentives; institutional choice; experiment; C70; D02; D03; D80}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{12}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, number = {{37}}, publisher = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}}, series = {{Working Papers}}, title = {{Grind or Gamble? : An Experimental Analysis of Effort and Spread Seeking in Contests}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/194594779/WP16_37.pdf}}, volume = {{2016}}, year = {{2016}}, }