We show that the value of commitment in many standard games is fragile. Specifically, when the second mover faces a small cost to observe the first mover's action, equilibrium payoffs are identical to the case where observation is in finitely costly or the first mover's actions are completely...

We study career choice when competition for promotion is a contest. A more meritocratic profession always succeeds in attracting the highest ability types, whereas a profession with superior promotion benefits attracts high types only if the hazard rate of the noise in performance evaluation is...