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Sabotage in team contests

Author

Listed:
  • Serhat Doğan

    (Bilkent University)

  • Kerim Keskin

    (Kadir Has University)

  • Çağrı Sağlam

    (Bilkent University)

Abstract

In the contest literature, sabotage is defined as a deliberate and costly activity that damages the opponent’s likelihood of winning the contest. Most of the existing results suggest that, anticipating a possible sabotage, contestants would be discouraged from exerting high efforts. In this paper we investigate the act of sabotage in a team contest wherein team members exert costly efforts as a contribution to their team’s aggregate effort, which in turn determines the contest’s outcome. For the baseline model with no sabotage, there exists a corner equilibrium implying a free-rider problem in each team. As for the model with sabotage, our characterization of Nash equilibrium reveals two important results: (i) a unique interior equilibrium exists so that the free-rider problem no longer is a concern and (ii) the discouragement effect of sabotage vanishes for some players. On top of those conclusions, we investigate the team owner’s problems of prize allocation and team formation with the objective being to maximize his team’s winning probability.

Suggested Citation

  • Serhat Doğan & Kerim Keskin & Çağrı Sağlam, 2019. "Sabotage in team contests," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 383-405, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:180:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s11127-019-00643-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-019-00643-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Doğan, Serhat & Karagözoğlu, Emin & Keskin, Kerim & Sağlam, Çağrı, 2021. "Bribing in team contests," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-9.
    2. Yizhaq Minchuk, 2020. "Rent-seeking contest with two forms of sabotaging efforts," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1413-1419.
    3. Christoph March & Marco Sahm, 2021. "Parochial altruism and the absence of the group size paradox in inter-group conflicts," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 361-373.
    4. Chen Cohen & Shmuel Nitzan, 2021. "Advantageous defensive efforts in contests," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 2147-2157.
    5. Baharad, Roy & Cohen, Chen & Nitzan, Shmuel, 2022. "Litigation with adversarial efforts," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. Peter-J. Jost, 2021. "“The ball is round, the game lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theoryâ€," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(1), pages 27-74, January.
    7. Chung, A., 2024. "Target Setting in Contests with Sabotage," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2409, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Team contests; Sabotage; Tullock contests; Free riding; Discouragement effect; Encouragement effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions

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