Generalized contest success functions

Abstract

The key element of models of contest is the contest success function (CSF) which specifies the winning probabilities of agents. The existing axiomatizations of CSFs assume that contestants can make only one type of investment. This paper generalizes these axiomatizations to the case where each agent can have multiple types of investments. This allows us to provide a unified framework to extend and interpret the results of Skaperdas (Econ Theory 7:283-290, 1996) and Clark and Riis (Econ Theory 11:201-204, 1998), and rationalize some seemingly ad hoc CSFs used by applied researchers.

An Economic Analysis of the Political Promotion System in China

“…2 • 375-390 Greatly different from Zhou's (2004) model, this paper tries to borrow from Tullock's (1980) original idea to build a new model based on the stylized facts in China. The models of the contest success function have been well-developed and applied by many scholars (see, e.g., Skaperdas, 1996;Baik, 1998;Dasgupta and Nti, 1998;Rai and Sarin, 2009;Corchón and Dahm, 2010). In this paper, we will show that Tullock's conceptual framework can be used to construct an economic theory of the political promotion system in China.…”

The market for protection and the origin of the state

“…19 Hirshleifer (1989) has examined the properties of this functional form; Skaperdas (1996) has axiomatized it as well as the more general form in (11). Note that if N l j=1 n m wj = 0, q(n w1, n w−1 ) = 1 N l .…”

Welfare maximizing contest success functions when the planner cannot commit

“…He analyzes a contest among jurisdictions for shares of the GNP and compares di¤erent types of jurisdictional organization. 4 Other alternative foundations for CSFs are provided by Blavatskyy (2010), Münster (2009) and Rai and Sarin (2009) who o¤er axiomatic characterizations of contest success functions following the seminal paper by Skaperdas (1996). The earlier work on foundations for contest success functions has been extensively reviewed by Konrad (2009).…”