Tullock contests may be revenue superior to auctions in a symmetric setting

•A symmetric two-player common-value setting with signals is considered.•Equilibrium revenue of the Tullock contest is compared to that of the auctions.•For some parameters, revenue may be higher in the contest than in the auctions.

We consider a symmetric two-player common-value setting where each player gets a private signal about the object value. We show that for some parameter values the equilibrium revenue can be higher in a Tullock contest than in the standard auctions.