Head Starts in Contests

This paper studies equilibrium behavior in a class of games that models asymmetric multiprize competitions in which players ’ costs are not necessarily strictly decreasing. Such costs accommodate head starts, which capture incumbency advantages, prior investments, and technological differences. I provide an algorithm that constructs the unique equilib-rium in which players do not choose weakly-dominated strategies, and apply it to study multiprize all-pay auctions with head starts. A comparison to the standard all-pay auction shows that the strategic effects of head starts differ substantially from those of differing valuations