By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.
We study contests in which players privately choose when to exert costly effort
toward a random success. A designer who values total effort and at least one success
chooses how to allocate a fixed prize and what feedback to provide. The optimal design
is a “weighted egalitarian” contest, which resembles a raffle. The designer withholds
feedback during an early phase, then reveals successes immediately thereafter.
Players work continuously during the early phase, then continue only until success
during the late one. Those succeeding early receive more raffle tickets, and hence a
higher probability of winning, than those succeeding later.
