This paper considers the players' behavior in an asymmetric two-player contest. When do they decide to struggle and when to subjugate? Analyzing contest-success functions it is found that two crucial prerequisites for struggle or war have to be met. Thus, such an equilibrium is possible but...

In this paper we analyze the optimal mix between appropriative and defensive activities for goods (goods contest) and appropriative and defensive activities for resources (resource contest). We show that goods contests are qualitatively different from resource contests. It turns out that for...

We analyze a model with two countries that are linked by an integrated capital market. Fertility, and thus population growth, is endogenously determined by households. Our analysis proceeds in three steps: First, we characterize an optimal intertemporal and interregional allocation in a model...

Our analysis of a game-theoretic model of liberal rights had two main purposes: First, we gave a characterization of Gibbard's solution to the liberal paradox in terms of a game equilibrium. Secondly, we asked for preference restrictions that can guarantee the existence of a Pareto-optimal...

Why is it that, in democracies, the poor do not expropriate the rich even though they outnumber them? In this paper we analyze the commonly held belief that the rich escape expropriation because they are economically powerful. We demonstrate that the economically powerful, i.e. the above-average...

Why is it that, in democracies, the poor do not expropriate the rich even though they outnumber them? In this paper the authors analyze the commonly held belief that the rich escape expropriation because they are economically powerful. They demonstrate that the economically powerful, i.e., the...