"High demand coupled with a driver shortage has made competition for taxi service fierce, if not downright combative," Mr. Sherman wrote.
Unlike other sports, though, there are no reserve leagues in the NFL, and this makes competition for places on each team's 53-man roster incredibly tough.
Others believe a crackdown on cartels in Colombia made competition for cocaine in Mexico more intense, triggering the turf wars that erupted under Calderón.
The geographic factor is not the only one making competition tougher for the Island's high school seniors.
But more recently, regulators have made competition a condition for approving the biggest mergers.
These issues make competitions easy targets for ridicule.
An article on the DealBook page on Friday about a simulated deal-making competition for business students misspelled the names of two members of the winning team from Tulane University.
In the spring of 2011, both Premier Wen Jiabao and Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang stated a need for policy changes to make science spending more efficient, including making the competition for grants more open and transparent.
"The rising birthrate, immigration and parents who can no longer afford to school their children privately have all contributed to making the competition for school places tougher than ever before.
