The authors examine the possibility of forming a competitive-share group in rent-seeking contests. The competitive-share group has the following characteristics: the group is treated as a single player competing with the nonmembers to win the rent, the members choose their outlays...

This paper generalizes the model of collective rent-seeking over a public good. Expanding the rent seeker's consumption bundle to include preferences over the public good and a private good, our results suggest collective rent-seeking is positively related to group size. Although free riding...

Conflicts between favorites and underdogs are everyday phenomena. The authors examine their strategic behavior in an experimental contest and find behavior partially consistent with predictions. Favorites given a first-mover advantage do overcommit effort relative to Nash. Underdogs often select...

Given E. Millner and M. Pratt's (1989) finding of behavior inconsistent with theory, the authors reexamine efficient rent-seeking in experimental markets. They show that (1) when r = 3, no Nash equilibrium exists and, therefore, behavior has no theoretical benchmark to judge consistency and (2)...