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Optimal Scrutiny in Multi-Period Promotion Tournaments

Author

Listed:
  • Pradeep Dubey

    (SUNY at Stony Brook)

  • Ori Haimanko

Abstract

Consider a principal who hires heterogeneous agents to work for him over T periods, without prior knowledge of their respective skills, and intends to promote one of them at the end. In each period the agents choose effort levels and produce random outputs, independently of each other, and are fully informed of the past history of outputs. The principal's major objective is to maximize the total expected output, but he may also put some weight on detecting the higher-skilled agent for promotion. To this end, he randomly samples n out of the T periods and awards the promotion to the agent who produces more on the sample. This determines an extensive form game Gamma (T,n), which we analyze for its subgame perfect equilibria in behavioral strategies. We show that the principal will do best to always choose a small sample size n. More precisely, if eta(T) is the maximal optimal sample size, then eta(T)/T approaches 0 as T approaches infinity.

Suggested Citation

  • Pradeep Dubey & Ori Haimanko, 2000. "Optimal Scrutiny in Multi-Period Promotion Tournaments," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1254, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1254
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lazear, Edward P & Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 841-864, October.
    2. Dubey, Pradeep & Kaneko, Mamoru, 1985. "Information patterns and Nash equilibria in extensive games -- II," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 247-262, December.
    3. Green, Jerry R & Stokey, Nancy L, 1983. "A Comparison of Tournaments and Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(3), pages 349-364, June.
    4. Rosen, Sherwin, 1986. "Prizes and Incentives in Elimination Tournaments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 701-715, September.
    5. Cowen, Tyler & Glazer, Amihai, 1996. "More monitoring can induce less effort," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 113-123, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Avrahami Judith & Kareev Yaakov & Uske Tobias & Gueth Werner, 2017. "On the Incentive Effects of Sample Size in Monitoring Agents – A Theoretical and Experimental Analysis," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 81-98, February.
    2. Yohan Pelosse, 2014. "Dynamic Difference-Form Contests," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(3), pages 401-426, June.
    3. Gershkov, Alex & Perry, Motty, 2009. "Tournaments with midterm reviews," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 162-190, May.
    4. Kam Ki Tang & Leopoldo Yanes, 2009. "The hierarchical structure of the firm: a geometric perspective," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2009(2), pages 156-175.
    5. Yaakov Kareev & Judith Avrahami, 2006. "Choosing Between Adaptive Agents: Some Unexpected Implications of Level of Scrutiny," Levine's Bibliography 321307000000000521, UCLA Department of Economics.
    6. Pradeep Dubey & John Geanakoplos, 2014. "Games with Money and Status: How Bes to Incentivize Work," Department of Economics Working Papers 14-02, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
    7. Dubey, Pradeep & Geanakoplos, John, 2010. "Grading exams: 100,99,98,... or A,B,C?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 72-94, May.
    8. Pradeep Dubey & Siddhartha Sah, 2012. "The Allocation of a Prize (Expanded)," Department of Economics Working Papers 12-02, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
    9. Dubey, Pradeep & Wu, Chien-wei, 2001. "Competitive prizes: when less scrutiny induces more effort," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 311-336, December.
    10. Morgan, John & Tumlinson, Justin & Várdy, Felix, 2022. "The limits of meritocracy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    11. Gürtler, Oliver, 2006. "Job Promotion Tournaments and Imperfect Recall," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 112, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    12. Pradeep Dubey & Siddhartha Sahi, 2009. "The Allocation of a Prize," Department of Economics Working Papers 09-01, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
    13. Pradeep Dubey & John Geanakoplos, 2005. "Grading in Games of Status: Marking Exams and Setting Wages," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1544, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Dec 2005.
    14. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:12:y:2005:i:13:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Kam Ki Tang & Rodney Beard & Evelyn Ng & Leopoldo Yanes, 2005. "The hierarchical structure of a firm: a geometric approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 12(13), pages 1-7.
    16. Yaakov Kareev & Judith Avrahami, 2006. "Choosing Between Adaptive Agents: Some Unexpected Implications of Level of Scrutiny," Discussion Paper Series dp436, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    17. Alex Gershkov & Motty Perry, 2006. "Tournaments with Midterm Reviews," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001229, UCLA Department of Economics.
    18. Grunewald, Andreas & Kräkel, Matthias, 2022. "Information manipulation and competition," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 245-263.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multi-period promotion tournaments; extensive form games; subgame perfect equilibria; undominated sample sizes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

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