We consider rent-seeking contests between and within two equal-sized groups. Each group adopts one of three sequences …. Groups cannot unilaterally postpone a contest without losing. We rank the nine possible combinations according to rent-seeking … expenditure and expected utilities. Rent-seeking is maximum when both internal contests either precede, or occur simultaneously …

that increases wealth or through a contest in which unproductive (rent-seeking) effort is used to redistribute wealth … an increase in rent-seeking effort, regardless of the security of property rights. When the contestants differ by their … different productive abilities, there exists an equilibrium in which rent-seeking effort is independent of productive ability. …