Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This paper studies how heterogeneity in confidence biases affects players’ relative effort provision in tournaments and contests. We uncover a non-monotonic effect of confidence on equilibrium relative efforts and winning probabilities. A player with either a low or a high confidence exerts less effort than his rival at equilibrium. However, for intermediate confidence levels, the player exerts more effort than his rival.