Summer Research Projects

Winner-Take-All Markets
Adam Boby

"This summer I am looking at Winner-Take-All Markets. Everyone is familiar with the quintessential example in professional sports events. Take for example the hundred-metre dash, where only fractions of a second separate the top performers, however, their financial rewards differ hugely based on this small performance margin. Similar phenomena can be observed in the markets for actors, authors, corporate lawyers and CEOs. Large rewards remain concentrated on the top few performers, while many others labour in relative obscurity. Through my project this summer, the goal is to develop a model that explains what gives rise to the Winner-Take-All Market and explore its implications."