This paper studies effort-maximizing prize designs in team contests with an arbitrary number of pairwise battles. The organizer rewards the teams contingent on battle outcomes subject to budget balance constraints. Our analysis fully accommodates heterogeneities across players and battles. We...

This paper investigates the optimal formation of teams in a tournament. A manager sorts four workers---who differ in their productivity---into two teams. Workers on each team join forces to produce team output, and one team wins a prize; e.g., a bonus package. Two sorting patterns are possible:...