We study rent-seeking contests, where the set of players contains both players with independent preferences and players with interdependent preferences. It turns out that the latter experience a strategic advantage in general two-player contests and in n-player-contests with non-increasing...

We analyze the dynamic interaction between imitators and optimizers in a changing world. To this end, we put forward a symmetric duopoly game of strategic substitutes where players interact repeatedly in a world of demand- and cost-uncertainty. If the environment changes every period, the...

We examine an evolutionary model of equilibrium selection, where all individuals interact w ith each other, recurrently playing a strictly supermodular game. Individuals play (myopic)\best responses to the current population profile, occasionally they pick an arbitrary strategy at random. To...

Investigating the strategic advantage of negatively interdependent preferences in action monotonic games, we derive characterizing conditions both for general action monotonic games and for the subclass of action monotonic games with spillovers. Examples demonstrate the generality of our...

Tullock's analysis of rent-seeking as a contest is reconsidered from an evolutionary point of view. We show that evolutionary stable behavior in a Tullock contest exists and differs from behavior in Nash equilibrium. Evolutionary stable behavior in these contests is robust in a strong sense and...

We study optimal incentive contracts in teams which consist of two groups of agents differing in their productivity and where team members feel a social pressure to exert similar effort. We show that it is first-best optimal to induce the more productive agent to exert higher effort. We then...

This paper shows that, contrary to common conception, robust equilibrium selection is possible in the two-population model of evolution by Kandori, Mailath and Rob (1993). Investigating the class of individualistic adjustment dynamics, we establish that, for generic 2x2 co-ordination games, the...

We propose a dynamic model that explains why individuals may be reluctant to pick up work although the wage is above their reservation wage. Accepting low paid work will put them in an adverse position in future wage bargaining, as employers could infer the individual.s low reservation wage from...