Doping and cheating in contest-like situations

Individuals who compete in a contest-like situation (for example, in sports, in promotion tournaments, or in an appointment contest) may have an incentive to illegally utilize resources in order to improve their relative positions. We analyze such doping or cheating within a tournament game between two heterogeneous players. Besides the direct and indirect costs of doping, three major effects are identified which determine a player's decision to deviate from a no-doping situation - a cost effect, a likelihood effect and a base-salary effect. Moreover, the influence of heterogeneity and exogenous performance risk on a no-doping outcome, and the influence of ex-ante and ex-post doping tests on the players' investments are discussed.