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arXiv · 2605.23539

Process Utility in High-Stakes Competition

Arnaud Dupuy
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Abstract

We study how individuals trade off outcome ("what") and process ("how") utility in high-stakes strategic decisions, namely professional tennis. Using optimality conditions and the second-service rule, we derive a sufficient condition for the nonparametric lower bound on the weight of process utility to be positive. Under mild shape restrictions, the high-frequency data indicate that most players likely value process utility positively. We then develop a structural model that recovers player-specific preferences over outcomes and processes. Estimates show that players systematically sacrifice success probabilities to increase process utility, with economically meaningful consequences for match outcomes and expected earnings.

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Arnaud Dupuy. 2026-05-22. Process Utility in High-Stakes Competition. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23539

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