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Competition and Well-Being

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Author Info
Brandts, Jordi
Riedl, Arno
van Winden, Frans A.A.M.

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Abstract

This paper experimentally studies the effects of competition in an environment where people's actions can not be contractually fixed. We find that, in comparison with no competition, the presence of competition does neither increase efficiency nor does it yield any gains in earnings for the short side of the exchange relation. Moreover, competition has a clearly negative impact on the disposition towards others and on the experienced well-being of those on the long side. Since subjective well-being improves only for those on the short side competition contributes to larger inequalities in experienced well-being. All in all competition does not show up as a positive force in our environment.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 5532.

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Date of creation: Mar 2006
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5532

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Related research
Keywords: competition; emotions; happiness; laboratory experiment; market interaction; well-being;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Personnel Economics - - - General

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Brian Roe & Steven Y. Wu, 2005. "Social Preferences and Relational Contracting Performance: An Experimental Investigation," Microeconomics 0509006, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  2. Ridderinkhof, Richard & Stallen, Mirre & van Winden, Frans A.A.M., 2008. "On the Nature, Modeling, and Neural Bases of Social Ties," CEPR Discussion Papers 6950, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Rode, Julian, 2007. "Truth and Trust in Communication: An Experimental Study of Behavior under Asymmetric Information," Ratio Working Papers 111, The Ratio Institute. [Downloadable!]
  4. Rode, Julian, 2008. "Truth and trust in communication - Experiments on the effect of a competitive context," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 08-04, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim & Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
  5. Roe, Brian E. & Wu, Steven Y., 2009. "Do the Selfish Mimic Cooperators? Experimental Evidence from Finitely-Repeated Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 4084, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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