Assistant Prof. Christian Seel (Maastricht University)

Abstract:

We model a design competition in which the best design at a prespecified deadline wins a prize. Contrary to a war of attrition, players cannot observe their rivals' effort decisions until the deadline. We consider public and private information about cost functions.  In both cases, the Nash equilibrium of the game is unique and we characterize it in closed form. Moreover, we determine the optimal deadline for different goal functions of the contest designer.