The Optimal Allocation of Prizes in Contests
研究多个不同奖金在竞赛中的最优分配，发现当成本函数线性或凹时，全部奖金应集中为单一头奖；当成本函数凸时，多个正奖金可能更优。
We study a contest with multiple, nonidentical prizes. Participants are privately informed about a parameter (ability) affecting their costs of effort. The contestant with the highest effort wins the first prize, the contestant with the second-highest effort wins the second prize, and so on until all the prizes are allocated. The contest's designer maximizes expected effort. When cost functions are linear or concave in effort, it is optimal to allocate the entire prize sum to a single “first” prize. When cost functions are convex, several positive prizes may be optimal.