News

The paper with Joe Ballard (Skidmore College), "Dynamic coordination with switching costs," is now accepted for publication in Games and Economic Behavior!

The paper with Mürüvvet Büyükboyacı (METU) and Merve İntişah (METU and Simon Fraser), "Risk, ambiguity, and the gender gap in tournament entry," is now accepted for publication in the Journal of Risk & Uncertainty!

Experiments at FSU

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Working Papers

17. Boosey, Luke and Mürüvvet Büyükboyacı. (2025). Asymmetry and entry into competition, Under Review, [Show/Hide Abstract]

    Experimental evidence suggests that gender differences in tournament entry may be driven by differences in competitiveness, overconfidence, and risk or ambiguity attitudes. We examine the influence of risk, ambiguity, and complexity on tournament entry using a novel experimental design that mitigates the role of overconfidence. Our experiment uses a rank-order tournament with calibrated ability, ensuring that variation in subjects' performances is driven by the random noise component. We vary the nature of uncertainty by manipulating whether the distribution of noise is known (risk) or unknown (ambiguity), as well as the complexity of the situation by varying the number of draws used to determine the noise component. We do not find any significant effects of complexity (the number of draws) on tournament entry for either kind of uncertainty. Moreover, in our risk treatments, we observe no gender gap in tournament entry. However, there is a significant gender gap in our ambiguity treatments, where the distribution of the noise component is unknown, driven by the negative influence of ambiguity on entry by women. A separate treatment-based measure of participants' preference for competition indicates that both men and women exhibit substantial competitiveness in the risk treatments, with no difference across gender. Yet, in stark contrast, ambiguity suppresses the competitiveness of women, without impacting the competitiveness of men. Altogether, our results suggest that greater transparency to minimize ambiguity may help to mitigate the gender gap in tournament entry.

18. Boosey, Luke A., Brookins, Philip and Ryvkin, Dmitry. (2025). Entry and disclosure in group contests, R&R, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, [Show/Hide Abstract]

    We examine how asymmetry in skill or chance influences entry into a competition. In a laboratory experiment, participants choose between a piece-rate and a tournament incentive scheme, with payments based on their performance in a real-effort task with an explicit noise component. We introduce asymmetry through two channels---skill capability and the noise term---that generate a similar ex-ante advantage for one player. When the advantage is based on skill, disadvantaged players enter significantly less than advantaged players and significantly less than the participants in a symmetric baseline. Entry decisions are strongly associated with beliefs about winning and risk preferences, but we find no evidence of gender differences in the response to asymmetry. When the advantage is derived from the noise term, entry rates (and the associated beliefs) of advantaged and disadvantaged players are statistically indistinguishable. A follow-up experiment suggests that participants do not fully grasp or internalize probabilistic advantages derived from chance-based asymmetry without the opportunity to sample from the distribution. These findings underscore the significance of the source of asymmetry for entry decisions, separate from the impact on effort.

19. Solimine, Philip and Boosey, Luke (2024). Strategic formation of collaborative networks, (previous working paper version, arXiv:2109.14204 [econ.GN]), [Show/Hide Abstract]

    We use a laboratory experiment and structural estimation to study how reciprocity influences linking and investment decisions in a game of strategic collaboration. We vary the information provided to participants about others' sharing decisions. Our information treatment facilitates direct (targeted) reciprocity and results indicate dramatic improvements in efficiency and reciprocal patterns of behavior. We develop and estimate a structural model for small-network panels. Using this model, we show that while the treatment stimulates direct reciprocity, it also moderates generalized reciprocity (or altruism). Counterfactual simulations demonstrate the potential positive impacts of interventions that promote increased trust and positive (but not negative) reciprocity.

20. Boosey, Luke A. and Brown, Christopher. (2022). Network-dependent externalities in contests, In preparation, [Show/Hide Abstract], [Older Working Paper version with additional experimental analysis].

    This paper considers a model of contests in which players have general preferences over the allocation of a valuable prize. We examine the impact of identity-dependent externalities, represented by a network of payoff spillovers, on competitive behavior in Tullock (1980) contests. The model defines a novel network contest game for which we establish existence and sufficient conditions for uniqueness of Nash equilibria, for any weighted (undirected) network with heterogeneous links. Our uniqueness result provides a novel adaptation and extension of well-known results for network games with linear best reply functions to the network contest game, which features non-linear best replies. We also provide specific characterizations and illustrations of equilibria for more tractable cases involving networks with homogenous links and networks with heterogeneous links, but homogenous node strengths. Variations in the network structure and the nature of the externalities have intuitive consequences for equilibrium investment. In general, the presence of positive externalities introduces free-riding incentives, whereas negative externalities intensify competition, especially among highly connected agents.

21. Boosey, Luke A. and Brown, Christopher. (2022). Contests with network-based externalities: Experimental evidence, In preparation, [Show/Hide Abstract]

    We report the findings of a laboratory experiment studying behavior in all-pay Tullock (1980) contests with network-based externalities. We test the predictions of a model in which the prize generates payoff externalities for losing contestants connected to the winner, by systematically varying the network structure and introducing either positive or negative externalities. The data provide robust support for the comparative static predictions of the model, although we also observe considerable over-investment relative to equilibrium predictions. Closer inspection of the observed patterns of over-investment suggests that behavior may be driven by heterogeneous joy of winning and social efficiency concerns.

Published Papers

1. Ballard, Joe S. and Boosey, Luke (2026). Dynamic coordination with switching costs, Games and Economic Behavior, Forthcoming. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   We study dynamic coordination with costly switching, where players are initially uncertain regarding how to coordinate. We develop a stylized model in which two players must search for compatible platforms. The model predicts that players remain on their current platforms whenever their common belief is sufficiently optimistic; otherwise, they randomize their actions, switching with higher probability whenever they are more pessimistic about compatibility, switching is less costly, or success conditional on compatibility is more likely. In an experiment, we vary (i) whether success is Deterministic or Stochastic when players are on compatible platforms, and (ii) the cost of switching. The data are largely consistent with comparative statics predictions, particularly in the Deterministic case. Behavior is more nuanced in the Stochastic setting, where learning is complicated by the fact that success is not guaranteed by compatibility. In all treatments, almost all pairs eventually coordinate on compatible platforms. However, both coordination rates and average payoffs are lower in the Stochastic setting than in the simpler, Deterministic setting.

2. Boosey, Luke A., Büyükboyacı, Mürüvvet and İntişah, Merve. (2026). Risk, ambiguity, and the gender gap in tournament entry, Journal of Risk & Uncertainty, Forthcoming. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   Experimental evidence suggests that gender differences in tournament entry may be driven by differences in competitiveness, overconfidence, and risk or ambiguity attitudes. We examine the influence of risk, ambiguity, and complexity on tournament entry using a novel experimental design that mitigates the role of overconfidence. Our experiment uses a rank-order tournament with calibrated ability, ensuring that variation in subjects' performances is driven by the random noise component. We vary the nature of uncertainty by manipulating whether the distribution of noise is known (risk) or unknown (ambiguity), as well as the complexity of the situation by varying the number of draws used to determine the noise component. We do not find any significant effects of complexity (the number of draws) on tournament entry for either kind of uncertainty. Moreover, in our risk treatments, we observe no gender gap in tournament entry. However, there is a significant gender gap in our ambiguity treatments, where the distribution of the noise component is unknown, driven by the negative influence of ambiguity on entry by women. A separate treatment-based measure of participants' preference for competition indicates that both men and women exhibit substantial competitiveness in the risk treatments, with no difference across gender. Yet, in stark contrast, ambiguity suppresses the competitiveness of women, without impacting the competitiveness of men. Altogether, our results suggest that greater transparency to minimize ambiguity may help to mitigate the gender gap in tournament entry.

3. Boosey, Luke A., Isaac, R. Mark and Ramalingam, Abhijit. (2024). Limiting the Leader: Fairness concerns in team production with leader-determined monitoring, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 218, 209–244. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   We use a laboratory experiment to investigate the extent to which leaders—faced with opportunistic incentives—employ monitoring to improve team production. Participants are assigned to teams, with one person appointed as the leader. The leader has the power to commit to a monitoring option, which replaces the default equal sharing rule with one that distributes team revenue in proportion to individual investments. Additionally, the leader can announce a claim to a portion of the team revenue, which is paid before shares are distributed. The resulting game possesses multiple equilibria involving monitoring and full investment, characterized by the largest claim the non-leaders are willing to tolerate by the leader. We appeal to behavioral considerations of fairness that help to form sharper predictions that pivot around the notion that non-leaders limit the leader to a `fair claim'. In the experiments, leaders are only moderately successful at increasing team production as they claim too much or forgo the monitoring option too often, especially when it is costly to monitor. Still, when there is no cost of monitoring, nearly half of the leaders successfully increase team production towards full investment, by relying on constant monitoring and resisting the temptation to issue unfair claims. These results highlight the potential for opportunistic incentives to undermine efficiency-enhancing leadership, even when the leader can commit to her decisions.

4. Boosey, Luke A. and Goerg, Sebastian J. (2020). The timing of discretionary bonuses - effort, signals, and reciprocity, Games and Economic Behavior, 124, 254–280. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   In a real-effort experiment, we investigate the relationship between reciprocity and the timing of discretionary bonuses in a two-period principal-agent (manager-worker) setting. We vary the timing of the manager's bonus decision in order to examine two main channels, reward and trust, through which discretionary bonuses may operate. Average worker performance improves when bonus decisions are made between the two periods, since both channels are simultaneously active. First-period output significantly increases as workers attempt to signal their trustworthiness to managers. When the bonus decision is made upfront or at the end, average output is no different than in a baseline setting without the bonus mechanism. Furthermore, output after a bonus is not paid decreases substantially, consistent with negative reciprocity. Our main findings are reinforced by using time spent on the available real leisure activity as an alternative measure of subjects' effort.

5. Boosey, Luke A., Brookins, Philip and Ryvkin, Dmitry. (2020). Information disclosure in contests with endogenous entry: an experiment, Management Science, 66(11), 5128–5150. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   We use a laboratory experiment to study the effects of disclosing the number of active participants in contests with endogenous entry. At the first stage, potential participants decide whether to enter competition, and at the second stage, entrants choose their investments. In a 2×2 design, we manipulate the size of the outside option, ω, and whether the number of entrants is disclosed between the stages. Theory predicts more entry for lower ω and the levels of entry and aggregate investment to be independent of disclosure in all cases. We find empirical entry frequencies decreasing with ω. For aggregate investment, we find no effect of disclosure when ω is low but a strong positive effect of disclosure when ω is high. The difference is driven by substantial overinvestment in contests with a small, publicly known number of players contrasted by more restrained investment in contests in which the number of players is uncertain and may be small. The behavior under disclosure is explained by a combination of joy of winning and entry regret.

6. Boosey, Luke A., Isaac, R. Mark, Norton, Doug and Stinn, Joseph. (2020). Cooperation, contributor types, and control questions, Journal of Behavioral & Experimental Economics, 85: 101489. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   A large number of experimental studies use the strategy method procedure introduced by Fischbacher, Gächter, and Fehr (Econ. Lett. 71:397-404, 2001) to measure individuals’ attitudes towards cooperation. The procedure elicits subjects’ strategic-form decisions in a one-shot game and classifies each subject as one of several different contributor types. In this paper, we examine the robustness of the procedure and its capacity to help explain the pattern of contributions observed in a separate, repeated game setting. Overall, we show that the elicited contributor types can explain behavior fairly well in the repeated game. Free-rider types contribute less than conditional cooperators, although we observe evidence consistent with strategic cooperation in the early periods of the repeated game. Nevertheless, by the last period, classified free-rider types converge to pure free-riding behavior. In addition, we highlight a potential methodological concern related to the use of control questions. We find that the inclusion of control questions increases (decreases) the proportion of free rider (conditional cooperator) types, but also leads to substantial wait times for many subjects. This raises concerns about the psychological impact of long wait times, through boredom, frustration, or spite, on the cooperative behavior of subjects in the laboratory setting.

7. Boosey, Luke A., Brookins, Philip and Ryvkin, Dmitry. (2019). Contests between groups of unknown size, Games and Economic Behavior, 113, 756–769. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   We study group contests where group sizes are stochastic and unobservable to participants at the time of investment. When the joint distribution of group sizes is symmetric, with expected group size k, the symmetric equilibrium aggregate investment is lower than in a symmetric group contest with commonly known fixed group size k. A similar result holds for two groups with asymmetric distributions of sizes. For the symmetric case, the reduction in individual and aggregate investment due to group size uncertainty increases with the variance in relative group impacts. When group sizes are independent conditional on a common shock, a stochastic increase in the common shock mitigates the effect of group size uncertainty unless the common and idiosyncratic components of group size are strong complements. Finally, group size uncertainty undermines the robustness of the group size paradox otherwise present in the model.

8. Boosey, Luke A., Brookins, Philip and Ryvkin, Dmitry. (2017). Contests with group size uncertainty: Experimental evidence, Games and Economic Behavior, 105, 212–229. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   In many contest situations, the number of participants is not observable at the time of investment. We design a laboratory experiment to study individual behavior in Tullock (lottery) contests with group size uncertainty. There is a fixed pool of n potential players, each with independent probability of participating. We independently manipulate each of the parameters and test the implied comparative statics predictions. Our results provide considerable support for the theory, both in terms of comparative statics and point predictions. Most surprisingly, we find no evidence of overbidding in treatments where there is a nontrivial probability that group size is one. This stands in stark contrast to the robust overbidding observed in experimental contests with deterministic group size. We propose a one-parameter model that incorporates nonlinear probability weighting and a modified version of joy of winning, which we call Constant Winning Aspirations (CWA), and show that it neatly organizes all of our results.

9. Boosey, Luke A. (2017). Conditional cooperation in network public goods experiments, Journal of Behavioral & Experimental Economics, 69, 108–116. [Show/Hide Abstract]

   This study investigates the pattern of contribution decisions in a network public goods game. In this game, each player’s payoff depends only on his own contribution and the contributions of his immediate neighbors in a circle network. As in the standard public goods game, we find substantial heterogeneity in behavior across subjects, including both unconditional free-riding and full cooperation, as well as conditional cooperation. We first examine the impact of different information conditions on conditional cooperation. At the aggregate level, we find that players who observe average payoff information about others contribute significantly less than those who observe average contribution information. We then investigate the extent to which conditional cooperators facilitate the spread of cooperation and free-riding behavior across the network. In groups with a single free-rider type, we show that individual contributions decay faster for players who are closer in the network to the free rider. On the other hand, in groups with a single unconditional full contributor type, players do not respond by converging to full cooperation. Instead, we find that proximity to the unconditional full contributor seems only to mitigate (or delay) the typical decline in contributions over time. These contrasting effects are consistent with the widespread claim that conditional cooperation is imperfect, or exhibits a self-serving bias.

10. Boosey, Luke A. and Isaac, R. Mark (2016). Asymmetric network monitoring and punishment in public goods experiments, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 132 Part A, 26–41. [Show/Hide Abstract]

    We extend the recent experimental literature on incomplete punishment networks in linear public goods games. In these games, we use an exogenous network to restrict both monitoring and the set of feasible punishment flows. In addition to two baseline structures (the Complete network and the Circle network), we examine a novel Asymmetric network in which both punishment responsibility and exposure differ across players. Average contributions are significantly lower in the Asymmetric network, driven entirely by the under-monitored player who faces only one potential punisher. We formulate and examine the hypothesis that asymmetry among a player's potential punishment targets may lead to discriminatory patterns of punishment. In particular, players might wish to punish targets for whom they are solely responsible discriminately more than targets for whom they share responsibility. The experimental data do not support this hypothesis, although they do suggest a compelling explanation as to why. Specifically, we find that the under-monitored player in the network retaliates against previous punishment significantly more often than others in the group, which deters their only potential punisher from issuing stronger sanctions. Thus, an additional complication of asymmetry in the network is that it may lead to more instances of anti-social retaliation, inhibiting the effectiveness of the decentralized punishment institution.

11. Boosey, Luke A. (2016). Competition in a posted-salary matching market under private information, The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, 16(2), 599–631. [Show/Hide Abstract]

    We study a posted-salary labor market in which firms engage in salary competition. Firms’ preferences over workers are private information, creating uncertainty about competitive pressure for different workers. We consider a baseline 2-firm, 2-worker model, then extend the analysis to larger markets by replicating the baseline. We characterize the unique Bayesian-Nash equilibrium, in which each firm type chooses a distributional strategy with interval support in the salary space. The main result shows that competition is localized, in the sense that firm types with a common most preferred worker choose non-overlapping, adjacent supports. We also provide numerical results to show that the equilibrium strategies in finite replicated markets converge to the corresponding equilibrium strategies in a market with a continuum of firms and workers.

12. Boosey, Luke A., Isaac, R. Mark and Norton, Douglas A. (2016). Passionate providers and the possibility of public commitment, in The WSPC Reference of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy in the Era of Global Change, Volume 4: Experimental Economics, edited by Anabela Botelho. Editor-in-Chief: Ariel Dinar. Singapore: World Scientific, chapter 3, pp. 43–69.