I show that aggregate-taking behavior is often evolutionarily stable for finite populations in symmetric games in which payoff depends only on own strategy and an aggregate. I provide economic examples exhibiting this phenomenon.

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...

In the equilibrium of the all-pay auction with two groups of individual players who move sequentially, only the player with the lowest effort cost has a positive payoff. This payoff and the overall dissipation crucially depend on group composition.

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...