The Distribution of Talent Across Contests
研究了竞赛奖金大小与参赛者能力分布的关系，发现只有当高能力参赛者比例较小时才会出现完全分类，否则高能力者会回避竞争，甚至出现反向分类。基于20年面板数据验证了理论预测。
Do the contests with the largest prizes attract the most able contestants? To what extent do contestants avoid competition? We show that the distribution of abilities is crucial in determining contest choice. Complete sorting exists only when the proportion of high-ability contestants is small. As this proportion increases, high-ability contestants shy away from competition and sorting decreases, making reverse sorting a possibility. We test our theoretical predictions with a large panel data set containing contest choice over 20 years. We use exogenous variation in the participation of highly able competitors to provide evidence for the relationship among prizes, competition and sorting.