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Choosing Fair Lotteries to Defeat the Competition

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  • Wagman, Liad
  • Conitzer, Vincent

Abstract

We study the following game: each agent i chooses a lottery over nonnegative numbers whose expectation is equal to his budget b_i. The agent with the highest realized outcome wins and agents only care about winning). This game is motivated by various real-world settings where agents each choose a gamble and the primary goal is to come out ahead. Such settings include patent races, stock market competitions, and R&D tournaments. We show that there is a unique symmetric equilibrium when budgets are equal. We proceed to study and solve extensions, including settings where agents must obtain a minimum outcome to win; where agents choose their budgets (at a cost); and where budgets are private information.

Suggested Citation

  • Wagman, Liad & Conitzer, Vincent, 2008. "Choosing Fair Lotteries to Defeat the Competition," MPRA Paper 10375, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:10375
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    Cited by:

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    3. Sharma, Priyanka & Wagman, Liad, 2020. "Advertising and Voter Data in Asymmetric Political Contests," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    4. Ralph Boleslavsky & Christopher Cotton, 2011. "Learning More by Doing Less," Working Papers 2011-6, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    5. Raphael Boleslavsky & Christopher Cotton, 2012. "Grade Inflation and Education Quality," Working Papers 2012-2, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    6. Mark Whitmeyer, 2021. "Submission Fees in Risk-Taking Contests," Papers 2108.13506, arXiv.org.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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