Individuals faced by a tournament can oftentimes not only choose their effort level, but also the risk level of their strategy. There are some theoretical contributions on risk taking in tournaments, which mainly point out disadvantages with respect to exerted effort. Empirical evidence is rare....

Surveying employment-related newspaper advertisements over several centuries, we identify four eras (neither workers nor firms posted ads, mostly workers posted, mostly firms posted, both parties posted). These eras correspond to alternative equilibria in a strategic coordination game describing...