This paper explores the design of contests involving n contestants, focusing on how the designer decides on the number of contestants allowed and the prize structure with a fixed budget. We characterize the unique symmetric Bayesian Nash equilibrium of contestants and find the optimal contests design for the maximum individual effort objective and the total effort objective.
@article{arxiv.2502.09014,
title = {Optimal Contest Design with Entry Restriction},
author = {Hanbing Liu and Ningyuan Li and Weian Li and Qi Qi and Changyuan Yu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.09014},
year = {2025}
}