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Myopic Risk Taking in Tournaments

Author

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  • Eriksen, Kristoffer

    (UiS)

  • Kvaløy, Ola

    (UiS)

Abstract

There is a common notion that incentive schemes in the financial industry trigger myopia and risk-taking. In some sense this contrasts with the concept of myopic loss aversion (MLA), which implies that myopia mitigates risk-taking. A number of experimental studies support the MLA-hypothesis by showing that people take less risk the more frequently their investments are evaluated. In this paper we show experimentally that if subjects are exposed to tournament incentives, they take more risk the more frequently investments are evaluated.

Suggested Citation

  • Eriksen, Kristoffer & Kvaløy, Ola, 2012. "Myopic Risk Taking in Tournaments," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2012/13, University of Stavanger.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:stavef:2012_013
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Stracke, Rudi & Höchtl, Wolfgang & Kerschbamer, Rudolf & Sunde, Uwe, 2014. "Optimal prizes in dynamic elimination contests: Theory and experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 43-58.
    3. Fang, Dawei & Holmén, Martin & Kleinlercher, Daniel & Kirchler, Michael, 2017. "How tournament incentives affect asset markets: A comparison between winner-take-all tournaments and elimination contests," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-27.
    4. Kräkel, Matthias & Nieken, Petra & Przemeck, Judith, 2014. "Risk taking and investing in electoral competition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 98-120.
    5. Eriksen, Kristoffer W & Kvaløy, Ola, 2015. "2015/01 No guts, no glory: An experiment on excessive risk-taking by Kristoffer W. Eriksen and Ola Kvaløy," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2015/1, University of Stavanger.
    6. Gu, Leilei, 2023. "Executives’ financial experience and myopic marketing management: A myopic loss-aversion perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    7. Zhang, Kun & Yang, Xiaolan & Gao, Mei, 2023. "When to use tournament incentives? Evidence from an investment experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    8. Federico Fornasari & Matteo Ploner & Ivan Soraperra, 2015. "Investment in Risk Protection and Social Preferences: An Experimental Study," CEEL Working Papers 1503, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    9. Cui, Xuegang & Feltovich, Nick & Zhang, Kun, 2022. "Incentive schemes, framing, and market behaviour: Evidence from an asset-market experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 301-324.
    10. Usvitskiy, Alexander, 2022. "Strategic risk-taking in dynamic contests," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 511-534.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    tournaments;

    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General

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