Does it Pay to do Well in Competitions? The case of the Queen Elizabeth Piano Competition

Pianists who achieve high scores in the Queen Elizabeth musical competition are rewarded by subsequent success.It is not clear whether this is caused by the score itself or because those who have high scores are better pianists anyway. Since the timing and the order of appearance are good instrumental variables for the nal ranking, our data on eleven subsequent competitions make it possible to distinguish between the two alternative explanations.We find that high scores have an impact on later success.