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The lottery contest is a best-response potential game

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  • Christian Ewerhart

Abstract

It is shown that the n-player lottery contest admits a best-response potential (Voorneveld, 2000, Economics Letters). This is true also when the contest technology reflects the possibility of a draw. The result implies, in particular, the existence of a non-trivial two-player zero-sum game that is best-response equivalent to a game with identical payoff functions.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Ewerhart, 2017. "The lottery contest is a best-response potential game," ECON - Working Papers 242, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Mar 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:econwp:242
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Abheek Ghosh & Paul W. Goldberg, 2023. "Best-Response Dynamics in Lottery Contests," Papers 2305.10881, arXiv.org.
    2. Bayer, Péter & Herings, P. Jean-Jacques & Peeters, Ronald & Thuijsman, Frank, 2019. "Adaptive learning in weighted network games," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 250-264.
    3. Edith Elkind & Abheek Ghosh & Paul W. Goldberg, 2024. "Continuous-Time Best-Response and Related Dynamics in Tullock Contests with Convex Costs," Papers 2402.08541, arXiv.org.
    4. A. Mantovi, 2021. "Bitcoin selection rule and foundational game theoretic representation of mining competition," Economics Department Working Papers 2021-EP02, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    5. Ratul Lahkar & Rezina Sultana, 2020. "Affirmative Action in Large Population Contests," Working Papers 40, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    6. Gerasimos T. Soldatos, 2021. "A model of market competition as a prize contest or a model of strife for market domination," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-9, January.
    7. Xu, Jin & Zenou, Yves & Zhou, Junjie, 2022. "Equilibrium characterization and shock propagation in conflict networks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    8. Luke A. Boosey & Christopher Brown, 2021. "Contests with Network Externalities: Theory & Evidence," Working Papers wp2021_07_02, Department of Economics, Florida State University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Potential games; Tullock contest; best-response equivalence; zero-sum games;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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