Abstract: We study a contest between teams for multiple indivisible prizes. Team members are heterogeneous in terms of ability (productivity). Team output is a CES function of individual team members’ efforts. We pin down the intra-team prize allocation rule that maximises team output (and thus team success) as a function of the degree of complementarity between team members’ efforts and the convexity of the cost of effort function. Our results generate predictions about where we should find the most able candidates in electoral party lists for elections run under closed-list proportional representation, an electoral system used in many democracies.

Co-authors: Hideo Konishi (Boston College) and Nicolas Sahuguet (HEC Montreal)