Games and contests

The thesis analyzes individuals and self-enforced group strategies in the presence of strategic interaction. The focus of the thesis is on stable states in which there are no non-credible threats. Considering a scenario in which a decision maker faces an ambiguous due date for a task, sophisticated decision makers are more inclined to execute the task earlier than the naive ones. There are approximations of stable states with no non-credible threats where people make choices sequentially and try to end up in the minority. Proportional resource allocation is achievable in US presidential primaries whenever the candidates’ aim is to maximize their votes.