This paper uses a laboratory experiment to investigate the role of group size in an innovation contest. Subjects compete in a discrete time innovation contest, based on Halac, Kartik, and Liu (2017), where subjects, at the start of each period, are informed of the aggregate number of innovation attempts. I compare two innovation contests, a two-person and four-person contest, that only differ by contest size and have the same probability of obtaining an innovation in equilibrium. The four-person contest results in more innovations and induces more aggregate innovation attempts than the two-person contest. However, there is some evidence that the two-person contest induces more innovation attempts from an individual than the four-person contest.

本文使用实验室实验来研究小组规模在创新竞赛中的作用。根据Halac，Kartik和Liu（2017），受试者在离散时间创新竞赛中竞争，在每个阶段开始时，受试者都会获悉创新尝试的总数。我比较了两个创新竞赛，一个两人和四人竞赛，它们的竞赛规模不同，并且在平衡中获得创新的可能性相同。与两人比赛相比，四人比赛带来了更多的创新，并引发了更多的创新尝试。但是，有一些证据表明，两人竞赛比四人竞赛从个人身上引发了更多的创新尝试。