Contests with multi-tasking

The standard contest model in which participants compete in a
single dimension is well understood and documented. Multi-dimension
extensions are possible but are liable to increase the complexity
of the contest structure, mitigating one of its main advantages:
simplicity. In this paper we propose an extension in which
competition ensues in several dimensions and a competitor that wins
a certain number of these is awarded a prize. The amount of
information needed to run the contest is hence limited to the
number of dimensions won by each player. We look at the design of
this contest from the point of view of maximizing effort in the
contest (per dimension and totally), and show that there will be a
tendency to run small contests with few dimensions. The standard
Tullock model and its results are encompassed by our framework.