Many economic, political and social environments can be described as contests in which agents exert costly efforts … while competing over the distribution of a scarce resource. These environments have been studied using Tullock contests, all …-pay auctions and rankorder tournaments. This survey provides a review of experimental research on these three canonical contests …

experimental rent-seeking contests. Although, as we show, existing evidence of excessive rent-seeking is in theory compatible with …

deterministic contests average expenditures converge to equilibrium levels when subjects only get feedback about own earnings, and … additional feedback about rivals' choices and earnings raises average expenditures. In stochastic contests information feedback …

very different effects depending on the contest structure. We observe the highest rent dissipation in stochastic contests … when players only get feedback on own choices and earnings. In these contests aggregate expenditures usually exceed the …. In contrast, in deterministic contests average expenditures converge to equilibrium levels when subjects only get …

success of the group. Our main finding is that, in contrast with a number of theoretical predictions, efforts in contests … involving heterogeneous groups are higher than in contests involving only homogeneous groups, leading to reduced earnings (to … contest participants) and increased inequality. This effect is particularly pronounced in asymmetric contests, where both …

We experimentally investigate how reputational concerns affect behavior in repeated Tullock contests by comparing …

We report the results of laboratory experiments on rent-seeking contests with endogenous participation. Theory predicts …