Mustafa Yıldırım is an assistant professor of economics at İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University. After obtaining his B.S. in electrical and electronics engineering from the Middle East Technical University, he pursued his studies in economics. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in this field from Sabancı University and the Stockholm School of Economics, respectively. Beginning with his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Incentives in Contests,” his research has been primarily on contest theory to shed light on real-life competitive situations as well as make further predictions.