The Distribution of Talent Across Contests

Azmat, Ghazala; Möller, Marc (2018). The Distribution of Talent Across Contests. The economic journal, 128(609), pp. 471-509. Wiley 10.1111/ecoj.12426

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Do the contests with the largest prizes attract the most-able contestants? To what extent do contestants avoid competition? In this paper, we show, theoretically and empirically, that the distribution of abilities plays a crucial role in determining contest choice. Complete sorting exists only when the proportion of high-ability contestants is sufficiently small. As this proportion increases, high-ability contestants shy away from competition and sorting decreases, such that, reverse sorting becomes a possibility. We test our theoretical predictions with a large panel data set containing contest choice over twenty years. We use exogenous variation in the participation of highly-able competitors to provide empirical evidence for the relationship among prizes, competition, and sorting.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Economics

UniBE Contributor:

Möller, Marc

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

0013-0133

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Marc Möller

Date Deposited:

27 Dec 2018 14:29

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:22

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/ecoj.12426

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.122195

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/122195

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