We report the results of laboratory experiments on rent-seeking contests with endogenous participation. Theory predicts …

We report the results of laboratory experiments on rent-seeking contests with endogenous participation. Theory predicts …

between groups, as well as real-effort and field experiments. Finally, we discuss applications of contests to the study of …Many economic, political and social environments can be described as contests in which agents exert costly efforts … while competing over the distribution of a scarce resource. These environments have been studied using Tullock contests, all …

very different effects depending on the contest structure. We observe the highest rent dissipation in stochastic contests … when players only get feedback on own choices and earnings. In these contests aggregate expenditures usually exceed the …. In contrast, in deterministic contests average expenditures converge to equilibrium levels when subjects only get …

We provide an overview of experimental literature on contests and point out the two main phenomena observed in most … contest experiments- (i) overbidding relative to the standard Nash equilibrium prediction and (ii) heterogeneous behavior of … ex-ante symmetric contestants. Based on the sample of contest experiments that we review, the median overbidding rate is …

competitive coordination games, such as rent-seeking contests, better within-group coordination leads to more aggressive …

deterministic contests average expenditures converge to equilibrium levels when subjects only get feedback about own earnings, and … additional feedback about rivals’ choices and earnings raises average expenditures. In stochastic contests information feedback …

under which welfare losses from investment in distributional contests destroy welfare gains from voluntary cooperation. We …