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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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: García-Martínez, José A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Repositorio:REDIUMH. Depósito Digital de la UMH
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.umh.es:11000/38697
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11000/38697
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Contest
Competition
Strength of competition
Selection process
CDU::3 - Ciencias sociales::33 - Economía
Descripción
Sumario: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.