A Survey of Experimental Research on Contests, All-Pay Auctions and Tournaments

Many economic, political and social environments can be described as contests in which agents exert costly efforts while competing over the distribution of a scarce resource. These environments have been studied using Tullock contests, all-pay auctions and rankorder tournaments. This survey provides a review of experimental research on these three canonical contests. First, we review studies investigating the basic structure of contests, including the contest success function, number of players and prizes, spillovers and externalities, heterogeneity, and incomplete information. Second, we discuss dynamic contests and multi-battle contests. Then we review research on sabotage, feedback, bias, collusion, alliances, and contests between groups, as well as real-effort and field experiments. Finally, we discuss applications of contests to the study of legal systems, political competition, war, conflict avoidance, sales, and charities, and suggest directions for future research. (author's abstract

Gut microbiota contributes to the development of hypertension in a genetic mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33931880/https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.15512https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bph.15512Hypertension is an important cardiovascular risk factor that is prevalent in the systemic lupus erythematosus patient population. Here, we have investigated whether intestinal microbiota is involved in hypertension in a genetic mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus. Twenty-six-week-old female NZW/LacJ (control) and NZBWF1 (F1 hybrid of New Zealand Black and New Zealand White strains; systemic lupus erythematosus) mice were treated for 6 weeks with a broad-spectrum antibiotic mixture or with vancomycin. Faecal microbiota transplantation was performed from donor systemic lupus erythematosus group to recipient to germ-depleted or germ-free mice. Antibiotic treatment inhibited the development of hypertension and renal injury, improved endothelial dysfunction and vascular oxidative stress, and decreased aortic Th17 infiltration in NZBWF1 mice. High BP and vascular complications found in systemic lupus erythematosus mice, but not autoimmunity, kidney inflammation and endotoxemia, were reproduced by the transfer of gut microbiota from systemic lupus erythematosus donors to germ-free or germ-depleted mice. Increased proportions of Bacteroides were linked with high BP in these mice. The reduced endothelium-dependent vasodilator responses to acetylcholine and the high BP induced by microbiota from hypertensive systemic lupus erythematosus mice were inhibited after IL-17 neutralization. Changes in T-cell populations, endothelial function, vascular inflammation and hypertension driven by a genetic systemic lupus erythematosus background can be modified by antibiotic-induced changes in gut microbiota. The vascular changes induced by hypertensive systemic lupus erythematosus microbiota were mediated by Th17 infiltration in the vasculature.European Regional Development Fund; Instituto de Salud Carlos III; Junta deAndalucía, Grant/Award Number: CTS 164; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Grant/Award Number: SAF2017-84894-R; Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologí