Distributional Competition
Theoretical Economics
2026-05-07 v3
Abstract
I study symmetric competitions in which each player chooses an arbitrary distribution over a one-dimensional performance index, subject to a convex cost. I establish existence of a symmetric equilibrium, document various properties it must possess, and provide a characterization via the first-order approach. Manifold applications--to R\&D competition, oligopolistic competition with product design, and rank-order contests--follow.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.22112,
title = {Distributional Competition},
author = {Mark Whitmeyer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.22112},
year = {2026}
}