Elimination Tournament Design under Psychological Momentum
24 Pages Posted: 23 Oct 2017
Date Written: October 21, 2017
Abstract
In multi-round elimination tournaments, players experience "psychological momentum". We re-consider the design of elimination tournament plan, by taking into account of various types of psychological momentum. The results show that if there is negative psychological momentum, either persistent or not, a double-elimination tournament elicits a higher total effort than a single-elimination tournament if and only if the negative psychological shocks from a player's failures in preceding rounds do not affect this player's mental status significantly in the following rounds. Similarly, if positive momentum is non-persistent, a double-elimination tournament elicits a higher total effort if and only if psychological shocks are not significant. However, if positive psychological momentum is persistent, then a double-elimination tournament always dominates a single-elimination tournament.
Keywords: Elimination Tournaments, Psychological Momentum, Contest Design
JEL Classification: C7, D4, D7, D9
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