Admission Policy in Parallel Contests

We study admission policies in parallel contests, where agents compete for prizes that depend both on a nominal value and the reputations of the competing agents. We study how contest organizers choose their admission policy, considering both single and parallel contests. In the single-contest scenario, the organizer chooses to admit agents of lower types, weighing the potential reduction in the value of winning against competition intensity. We provide general conditions for the organizer to restrict and admit lower-type agents. We also show that admitting lower-type agents can increase total effort and, conversely, diminish it. In the parallel contest scenario, we study the admission policies considering the competition among the organizers of the contests. We analyze how a composition of admission policies influences agents’ contest choices and how this affects overall equilibrium strategies on both sides.