Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/215263 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12867
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We validate experimentally a new survey item to measure the preference for competition. The item, which measures participants' agreement with the statement "Competition brings the best out of me", predicts individuals' willingness to compete in the laboratory after controlling for their ability, beliefs, and risk attitude (Niederle and Vesterlund, 2007). We further validate the explanatory power of our survey item outside of the laboratory, by comparing responses across two samples with predicted differences in their preference for competition: professional athletes and non-athletes. As predicted, we find that athletes score higher on the item than non-athletes.
Subjects: 
competition
survey question
experiment validation
JEL: 
C91
D90
D91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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