Competition and Well-Being

• Authors: Arno Riedl, Frans van Winden and Jordi Brandts.
• BSE Working Paper: 120 | September 15
• Keywords: competition , happiness , well-being , laboratory experiment , emotions , market interaction
• JEL codes: A13, C92, D30, J50, M50
• competition
• happiness
• well-being
• laboratory experiment
• emotions
• market interaction

We study the effects of competition in a context in which people’s actions can not be contractually fixed. We find that in such an environment the very presence of competition does neither increase efficiency nor does it yield any payoff gains for the short side of the market. We also find that competition has a strong negative impact on social well-being, the disposition towards others, and individually experienced well-being, the emotional state, of those on the long side of the market. We conjecture that this limits the possibilities of satisfactory interaction in the future and, hence, has negative implications for efficiency in the longer-run.