The effects of prize spread and noise in elimination tournaments: A natural field experiment

We conduct a natural field experiment in a large retail chain to test basic predictions of tournament theory regarding prize spread and noise. A random subset of the 208 stores participates in two-stage elimination tournaments. Tournaments differ in the distribution of prize money across winners of the first and second round of the tournament. As predicted by theory, we find that a more convex prize spread increases performance in the second round at the expense of first-round performance, although the magnitude of these effects is small. Moreover, the treatment effect is significantly larger... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Delfgaauw, Josse
Dur, Robert
Non, Arjan
Verbeke, Willem
Dokumenttyp: doc-type:workingPaper
Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
Verlag/Hrsg.: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Schlagwörter: ddc:330 / C93 / M51 / M52 / elimination tournaments / incentives / prize spread / performance measurement / field experiment / Extensives Spiel / Handelskette / Filiale / Wettbewerb / Feldforschung / Niederlande
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26860541
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/10419/58598

We conduct a natural field experiment in a large retail chain to test basic predictions of tournament theory regarding prize spread and noise. A random subset of the 208 stores participates in two-stage elimination tournaments. Tournaments differ in the distribution of prize money across winners of the first and second round of the tournament. As predicted by theory, we find that a more convex prize spread increases performance in the second round at the expense of first-round performance, although the magnitude of these effects is small. Moreover, the treatment effect is significantly larger for stores that historically have relatively stable performance as compared to stores with more noisy performance.