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Why Can’T We Be Friends? Entitlements, Bargaining, And Conflict, Erik O. Kimbrough, Roman M. Sheremeta
Why Can’T We Be Friends? Entitlements, Bargaining, And Conflict, Erik O. Kimbrough, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
We design an experiment to explore the impact of earned entitlements on the frequency and intensity of conflicts in a two-stage conflict game with side-payments. In this game, residents (Proposers) make side-payment offers and contestants (Responders) decide whether to accept the offers and whether to engage in a conflict. When subjects earn their roles, conflicts are 44% more likely to be avoided than when roles are assigned randomly. Earned rights impact behavior in three important ways: (1) residents who have earned their position persistently offer larger side-payments; (2) larger offers lead to a lower probability of conflict, but (3) residents …
Building And Rebuilding Trust With Promises And Apologies, Eric Schniter, Roman M. Sheremeta, Daniel Sznycer
Building And Rebuilding Trust With Promises And Apologies, Eric Schniter, Roman M. Sheremeta, Daniel Sznycer
ESI Working Papers
Using trust games, we study how promises and messages are used to build new trust where it did not previously exist and to rebuild damaged trust. In these games, trustees made non-binding promises of investment-contingent returns, then investors decided whether to invest, and finally trustees decided how much to return. After an unexpected second game was announced, but before it commenced, trustees could send a one-way message. This design allowed us to observe the endogenous emergence and natural distribution of trust-relevant behaviors and focus on naturally occurring remedial strategies used by promise-breakers and distrusted trustees, their effects on investors, and …
Endowment Origin, Demographic Effects And Individual Preferences In Contests, Curtis R. Price, Roman M. Sheremeta
Endowment Origin, Demographic Effects And Individual Preferences In Contests, Curtis R. Price, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
In modern firms the use of contests as an incentive device is ubiquitous. Nonetheless, recent experimental research shows that in the laboratory subjects routinely make suboptimal decisions in contests even to the extent of making negative returns. The purpose of this study is to investigate if changing how agents are endowed with resources can increase the efficiency in contests. To this end, we conduct a laboratory experiment in which subjects are asked to allot costly resources (bids) in an effort to attain an award (prize). In line with other laboratory studies of contests, our results show that subjects overbid relative …
Multi-Battle Contests: An Experimental Study, Shakun D. Mago, Roman M. Sheremeta
Multi-Battle Contests: An Experimental Study, Shakun D. Mago, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
This study examines behavior of subjects in simultaneous and sequential multi-battle contests. In simultaneous contests, subjects make positive bids in each battle 80% of the time and bids fall within the predicted boundaries. However, 35% of the time subjects make positive bids in only two, instead of all three, battles and they significantly overuse moderately high bids. In sequential contests, theory predicts sizable bids in the first battle and no bids in the subsequent battles. Contrary to this prediction, subjects significantly underbid in the first battle and overbid in subsequent battles. Consequently, instead of always ending in the second battle, …
Best-Of-Three Contest Experiments: Strategic Versus Psychological Momentum, Shakun D. Mago, Roman M. Sheremeta, Andrew Yates
Best-Of-Three Contest Experiments: Strategic Versus Psychological Momentum, Shakun D. Mago, Roman M. Sheremeta, Andrew Yates
ESI Working Papers
We conduct an experimental analysis of a best-of-three contest. Intermediate prizes lead to higher efforts, while increasing the role of luck (as opposed to effort) leads to lower efforts. Both intermediate prizes and luck reduce the probability of contest ending in two rounds. The patterns of players’ efforts and the probability that a contest ends in two rounds are consistent with ‘strategic momentum’, i.e., momentum generated due to strategic incentives inherent in the contest. We do not find evidence for ‘psychological momentum’, i.e., momentum which emerges when winning affects players’ confidence. Similar to previous studies of contests, we find significantly …
Side-Payments And The Costs Of Conflict, Erik O. Kimbrough, Roman M. Sheremeta
Side-Payments And The Costs Of Conflict, Erik O. Kimbrough, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
Conflict and competition often impose costs on both winners and losers, and conflicting parties may prefer to resolve the dispute before it occurs. The equilibrium of a conflict game with side-payments predicts that with binding offers, proposers make and responders accept side-payments, generating settlements that strongly favor proposers. When side-payments are non-binding, proposers offer nothing and conflicts always arise. Laboratory experiments confirm that binding side-payments reduce conflicts. However, 30% of responders reject binding offers, and offers are more egalitarian than predicted. Surprisingly, non-binding side-payments also improve efficiency, although less than binding. With binding side-payments, 87% of efficiency gains come from …
A Survey Of Experimental Research On Contests, All-Pay Auctions And Tournaments, Emmanuel Dechenaux, Dan Kovenock, Roman M. Sheremeta
A Survey Of Experimental Research On Contests, All-Pay Auctions And Tournaments, Emmanuel Dechenaux, Dan Kovenock, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
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-pay auctions and rank-order tournaments. This survey provides a review of experimental research on these three canonical contests. First, we review studies investigating the basic structure of contests, including the contest success function, number of players and prizes, spillovers and externalities, heterogeneity, and incomplete information. Second, we discuss dynamic contests and multibattle contests. Then we review research on sabotage, feedback, bias, collusion, alliances, and contests between …
Overdissipation And Convergence In Rent-Seeking Experiments: Cost Structure And Prize Allocation Rules, Subhashish M. Chowdhury, Roman M. Sheremeta
Overdissipation And Convergence In Rent-Seeking Experiments: Cost Structure And Prize Allocation Rules, Subhashish M. Chowdhury, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
We study experimentally the effects of cost structure and prize allocation rules on the performance of rent-seeking contests. Most previous studies use a lottery prize rule and linear cost, and find both overdissipation relative to Nash equilibrium prediction and significant variation in individual subject efforts. In a 2 2 design, we investigate the effects of sharing the prize proportionally and of a convex cost function, while holding fixed the Nash equilibrium prediction for effort. We find that the share rule results in average effort closer to the Nash prediction, lower variation in individual efforts, and convergence of the distribution of …