
handle: 10419/93787
This paper presents a strategic model of risk-taking behavior in contests. Formally, we analyze an n-player winner-take-all contest in which each player decides when to stop a privately observed Brownian Motion with drift. A player whose process reaches zero has to stop. The player with the highest stopping point wins. Contrary to the explicit cost for a higher stopping time in a war of attrition, here, higher stopping times are riskier, because players can go bankrupt. We derive a closed-form solution of the unique Nash equilibrium outcome of the game. In equilibrium, the trade-off between risk and reward causes a non-monotonicity: highest expected losses occur if the process decreases only slightly in expectation.
Probabilistic games; gambling, Stopping times; optimal stopping problems; gambling theory, Test, 330, Glücksspiel, risk-taking behavior, \(n\)-person games, \(n>2\), contests, Auctions, bargaining, bidding and selling, and other market models, C72, C73, Discontinuous games, Relative performance pay, Applications of Brownian motions and diffusion theory (population genetics, absorption problems, etc.), relative performance pay, ddc:330, Risktaking behavior, discontinuous games, Discontinuous games; Contests; Relative performance pay; Risktaking behavior, D81, Entscheidung bei Risiko, Contests, Nichtkooperatives Spiel, jel: jel:D81, jel: jel:C72, jel: jel:C73
Probabilistic games; gambling, Stopping times; optimal stopping problems; gambling theory, Test, 330, Glücksspiel, risk-taking behavior, \(n\)-person games, \(n>2\), contests, Auctions, bargaining, bidding and selling, and other market models, C72, C73, Discontinuous games, Relative performance pay, Applications of Brownian motions and diffusion theory (population genetics, absorption problems, etc.), relative performance pay, ddc:330, Risktaking behavior, discontinuous games, Discontinuous games; Contests; Relative performance pay; Risktaking behavior, D81, Entscheidung bei Risiko, Contests, Nichtkooperatives Spiel, jel: jel:D81, jel: jel:C72, jel: jel:C73
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