Skip to main content

Tournaments

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Book cover The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
  • 35 Accesses

Abstract

Tournament theory is a theory of promotion-based incentives which also contributes to the understanding of firms’ wage structures and individual earnings. In tournaments wage-rank differentials act as an incentive scheme when firms cannot directly observe employees’ effort. Empirical evidence is mainly from sports and lab experiments while there are fewer studies of businesses and organizations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 8,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Bull, C., A. Schotter, and K. Weigelt. 1987. Tournaments and piece-rates: An experimental study. Journal of Political Economy 95: 1–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, W. 1996. External recruitment versus internal promotion. Journal of Labor Economics 14: 555–570.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenberg, R., and M. Bognanno. 1990. Do tournaments have incentive effects? Journal of Political Economy 98: 1307–1324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eriksson, T. 1999. Executive compensation and tournament theory: Empirical tests on Danish data. Journal of Labor Economics 17: 262–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, J., and N. Stokey. 1983. A comparison of tournaments and contracts. Journal of Political Economy 91: 349–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knoeber, C., and W. Thurman. 1994. Testing the theory of tournaments: An empirical analysis of broiler production. Journal of Labor Economics 12: 155–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazear, E. 1989. Pay equality and industrial politics. Journal of Political Economy 97: 561–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazear, E., and S. Rosen. 1981. Rank-order tournaments as optimum labor contracts. Journal of Political Economy 89: 841–864.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, K. 1988. Aspects of tournament models: A survey. In Research in labor economics, vol. 9, ed. R. Ehrenberg, 225–256. Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nalebuff, B., and J. Stiglitz. 1983. Prizes and incentives: Towards a general theory of compensation and competition. Bell Journal of Economics 14: 21–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Keeffe, M., K. Viscusi, and R. Zeckhauser. 1984. Economic contests: Comparative reward schemes. Journal of Labor Economics 2: 27–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. 1986. Prizes and incentives in elimination tournaments. American Economic Review 76: 701–715.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldman, M. 1984. Job assignments, signalling, and efficiency. Rand Journal of Economics 15: 255–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Copyright information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Eriksson, T. (2018). Tournaments. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2950

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics