Julian Matthes, David Piazolo Game-theoretic Analysis of Road Cycling in the European Economic Review
A study by AWI doctoral students Julian Matthes and David Piazolo on strategic behavior in road cycling is forthcoming in the European Economic Review.
Using public data from over 40 seasons of road cycling races and game-theoretic modelling, they utilize the unique interplay of team competition and individual free-riding opportunities (by riding behind other riders) to analyze how groups of competitors can sometimes agree to work together. They find that groups with varying levels of ability tend to cooperate better, and that splitting team members across groups is often better for a team than keeping them together. This last result generalizes more broadly: Diversifying productive assets can help create free-riding opportunities. The paper illustrates how these results translate to situations in industrial and workplace organization.