A simple dynamic contest with a parameterized strength of competition

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of competition in a dynamic contest in which agents of two types (A and B) differ in their expected performances; environments where type A outperforms type B are more frequent than those where B outperforms A. In each period, the population of agents is randomly matched in groups of n members (each group faces a particular environment), with the top performing agents from each group being the winners of the prizes. Hence, the ratio determines the proportion of winning agents in each group. This ratio also describes the strength of competition in the group: the lower is, the higher the level of competition is. Our results show that type A eventually dominates the entire population with moderate competition, but type B survives in the long run for high levels of competition. Hence, we obtain that no matter how low the expected success rate of a type is, if the strength of competition is high enough those agents with the lowest expected success rate survive in the long run.