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How many winners are good to have?: On tournaments with sabotage

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Author Info
Harbring, Christine
Irlenbusch, Bernd

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Abstract

From an employer's perspective, a tournament should induce agents to exert productive activities but refrain from destructive ones. We experimentally test the predictive power of a tournament model which suggests that (within a reasonable framework) productive and destructive activities are influenced neither by the number of agents taking part in the tournament nor by the fraction of the winner prizes. Our results clearly confirm that sabotage in tournaments indeed occurs. While tournament size has virtually no effect on behavior, a balanced fraction of winner and loser prizes appears to enhance productive activities.

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File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V8F-4M7CD86-2/1/6ffbcc0735044704e0b92480274d07b3
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Publisher Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Volume (Year): 65 (2008)
Issue (Month): 3-4 (March)
Pages: 682-702
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Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:65:y:2008:i:3-4:p:682-702

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo

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  1. Harbring, Christine & Irlenbusch, Bernd, 2009. "Sabotage in Tournaments: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 4205, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  2. Altmann, Steffen & Falk, Armin & Wibral, Matthias, 2008. "Promotions and Incentives: The Case of Multi-Stage Elimination Tournaments," IZA Discussion Papers 3835, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  3. Harbring, Christine & Irlenbusch, Bernd, 2004. "Incentives in Tournaments with Endogenous Prize Selection," IZA Discussion Papers 1340, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Christiane Schwieren & Doris Weichselbaumer, 2008. "Does competition enhance performance or cheating? A laboratory experiment," NRN working papers 2008-05, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Carmen Bevi? & Luis C. Corch?n, 2006. "Rational Sabotage in Cooperative Production with Heterogeneous Agents," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 663.06, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Uschi Backes-Gellner & Kerstin Pull, 2007. "Tournament Incentives and Contestant Heterogeneity: Empirical Evidence from the Organizational Practice," Working Papers 0075, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU). [Downloadable!]
  7. Jeffrey Carpenter & Peter Hans Matthews & John Schirm, 2007. "Tournaments and Office Politics: Evidence from a Real Effort Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 2972, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Christine Harbring, 2006. "The effect of communication in incentive systems-an experimental study," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 333-353. [Downloadable!]
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