Abstract
We study temporal information design in contests,
wherein the organizer may, possibly incrementally,
disclose information about the participation and
performance of some contestants to other (later)
contestants. We show that such incremental disclosure can increase the organizer’s profit. The expected profit, however, depends on the exact information disclosure structure, and the optimal structure depends on the parameters of the problem.
We provide a game-theoretic analysis of such information disclosure schemes as they apply to two
common models of contests: (a) simple contests,
wherein contestants’ decisions concern only their
participation; and (b) Tullock contests, wherein
contestants choose the effort levels to expend. For
each of these we analyze and characterize the equilibrium strategy, and exhibit the potential benefits
of information design